Nep A Live
by The Green Spirit
Summary: After a plot device explodes Ram,Rom, and Yoshino are swapped out of their own worlds and into each other's. Yoshino ends up in Gamindustri with Nep and the others who work to send her back while in the world of Date A Live Ram&Rom are mistakenly believed to be Yoshino who has been separated like the twins. Naturally Ram intends to milk the confusion for all its worth.
1. PLOT Device

**Nep A Live**

 **Chapter 1: P.L.O.T. Device**

* * *

One day Neptune and all her friends had been called to the Planeptune basilicom by her little sister Nepgear who had been quite busy as of late.

The avid tinkerer and CPU candidate had been working nonstop for weeks in both her lap and the local dungeons to accomplish something she promised would be "Game Breaking".

At first Neptune paid her sister little mind and just continued on with her busy schedule of naps and eating pudding with Compa until one day she had been paid a rather unpleasant visit by the other CPUs who demanded to know what the hell the two of them were planning.

It turned out that Nepgear had been grinding quests for the guild like mad building up Planeptune's shares to almost astronomical levels.

This had rightfully upset the other nations who had watched their shares drop to the point where Planeptune now sat at a significant 44% share value.

It wasn't like Nepgear to act alone or for Neptune to begin hoarding shares so the CPUs from the other nations quickly began to suspect something was wrong. Thankfully they chose to just ask Neptune about it (She was a friend after all) before going with Blanc's first plan to capture her and torture her until she revealed what she was planning to do with the shares.

The questions of the CPUs had been met with a surprising revelation; Neptune hadn't helped her sister _at all!_ She didn't even know what she was up to!

Nepgear had started collecting the shares by herself for some unknown reason and today it appeared they would all finally find out what was going on with the semi-mad scientist.

Once everyone was inside her lab at the Basilicom Nepgear had done the big reveal.

"So you built a what again Nep Jr?"

"I've created a P.L.O.T. device! This is going to change everything!" she announced while showing off the giant machine that took up half her lab

Even with the obvious pride in her sparkling eyes and the dramatic tone of her voice Neptune still couldn't figure what her sister was worked up about "Ok Nep Jr it looks all sciency and smarty and stuff but what does it _do?_ Also, P.L.O.T.? What does that mean?" the goddess asked, her head tilted to the side in confusion "Does it have something to do with a horse's butt?"

Nepgear was more than thrilled to explain her scientific swan song to her befuddled big sister "It stands for **P** rism. **L** ancet. **O** scillating. **T** ransference. Device and for that matter the better question is what _can't_ it do?!" replied Nepgear who was almost dancing around the room with joy as she swayed from control panel to control panel

"Um…mind if you could run that by me again? I feel like I'm trying to understand the story of one of those Quiet Hill games Blanc keeps getting me to play"

The silent bookworm who stood in corner looked up from her newest novel "Don't blame me if you can't understand the story of any game more complex than _shoot the bad guy_ " Blanc commented, sounding both annoyed and impatient "Besides those are hardly that confusing compared to the Alloy gear series"

"Oh! I know that game!" shouted Peashy who grabbed a large steel crate and threw it across the room while poorly imitating a rock song with her mouth "Rules of Nature! braow! braow! braow! Rules of Nature!"

The yellow haired child then reached into Compa's nurse's bag and put on the eye patch she found inside.

"Ah! Peashy! Please don't throw things in the lab! You'll break some of Nepgear's _super_ scientrific stuff!" begged the nurse while in pursuit of the fleeing girl

"Rules of Nature! Memes! Jack is back! I'm F**king invincible!" Peashy cheered while swinging an imaginary sword

Noire put a hand to her forhead "Ok who's been playing inappropriate games in front of Peashy again?"

"We shall settle that another time" reasoned Histoire who was more interested in finding out about this machine that needed almost half the world's shares to operate "Nepgear what exactly is the purpose of this device? You claimed in your message it could help protect all four nations in the event of catastrophe correct?"

"Yes! You see Histoire I actually modeled the machine after you and your powers!" Nepgear explained

"My powers?"

Nepgear turned to the fairy-like Oracle she had been secretly studying for months now "You have limited powers to change reality am I right?"

"I was there when Arfoire used her to summon Momus out of thin air" confirmed IF who found it hard to forget seeing something like that happen right in front of her "She used that power to create a god, or at least what she claimed was one, from nothing more than some lies and rumors. That's one hell of a power to have"

Neptune put on a huge smile"Yeah then Iffy, me, and Compa made him go SPLATOON!" she recalled "He was no match for our super overleveling powers!"

"Well after hearing about that I decided to find a way to mimic that power based on thousands of passive scans I took of both Histoires. Once I had the scans I began to reconstruct the magical prism matrix inside Histoire's tome and calibrated the…."

"Holy Deus Ex Machina Batman! Hold up with the technobabble Nep Jr! We get it! You made a plot device that can do anything we want it to! No need to explain the details!"

Nepgear's enthusiasm wasn't diminished "So you DO understand then! This is huge! With the power of the shares and this device we can change reality at will whenever the world is in danger! No more relying on legendary weapons, ancient prophecies, or old relics! We can make anything we need to save Gamindustri just happen!"

With that understood Neptune seemed just as pumped as her sister "Sweet! We no longer need Histy to act as the series plot device dispenser then! She can get even more of my…her! HER! work done!"

Neptune could already imagine how many more games and naps she could enjoy with Histoire never having to run around looking for some old ancient thing in her book to stop whatever villain of the week was causing problems.

"We develop a way to guarantee Gamindustri's safety forever and all you can think about is ditching more work on to me" moaned Histoire, a hand to her forehead "(Sigh) I wonder if Plutia's world is looking for any new Oracles?"

"This is quite the accomplishment Nepgear" completed Vert with a few light claps

Nepgear took a small bow and thanked her for the kind words as the rest of the CPU's and everyone else in attendance rushed the candidate with a series of questions.

Most were about using the machine for petty stuff (Unlimited pudding for her sister, A bigger bust for IF, A little sister for Vert) but the CPU's from the other nations did ask when they could work to get their shares back. Understanding the importance of the shares Nepgear had prepared for that question to come up and assured them everything would be fine.

"It'd be wrong and even a little dangerous to leave the device powered all the time so after this we can let the shares go back to normal" she explained " It takes 42% of all the shares to operate the machine and (in theory) any land could use it in case Planeptune is lost to the enemy" Nepgear opened up a metal case on a nearby counter containing four crystal keys and began handing them out to the CPU's "As a matter of trust and security I've made these four keys to operate the machine. This way no one nation can just decide to use it for their own purposes and unless someone could steal all four keys without noticing none of our enemies should be able to use it either.

The CPU's examined the color coded keys (Purple for Planeptune, Green for Leanbox, White for Lowee, and Black for Lastation) and continued to listen to Nepgear's carefully laid out security measures "Take your key and guard it however you want. If something happens the keys can be brought out of hiding and shares can be gathered to activate the device. Don't lose them!"

"Wait a sec Nep Jr! You mean to tell me in order to use this thing to beat the bad guy we still need to gather four of something, get all the CPU's together, and collect a ton of shares in one place?" Neptune asked

"Yes"

"Um….how is that any different than what we normally do in each game?"

"Oh! It's easy! It's different because…because…" Nepgear's eyes became white circles as she realized _'My goodness I've done absolutely nothing to make things easier!'_

"It really does sound like the same to-do list we normally get" Neptune continued to grind her sister's feelings of accomplishment to dust under her arguments "I mean you could replace those keys with seals or chaos emeralds and the machine with some ancient weapon and we'd have the plot to the first three games all over again"

"I did nothing…weeks of work…dozens of quests…spying on Histoire…countless hours of late night bug fixing…I did nothing at all" said a dead-looking Nepgear in shock

"Aw don't feel bad Nepgear!" said Rom who got in closer to the device with her sister to inspect it "This is still really impressive" she said with one hand on the side of the machine

Ram knocked on the metal hull to test how though it was "Yeah! This is super cool! Even if it's a paperweight, it's a very awesome paperweight!"

"A paperweight? I created a… giant paperweight?" repeated Nepgear as she fell deeper into her depression

 **Nepgear has unlocked the Soul Destroying Misery Affinity!**

"Darn it Nep Jr! What did I tell you about unlocking that type of stuff!" complained Neptune "Ugh! I finally get her EV's right and her nature is all wrong! Now I have to go back to the daycare for more Nep Jr. eggs!"

"Um Nep Nep? I don't think Nepgear is a Pocketed Monstrosity" said Compa who finally returned holding a sleepy looking Peashy in her arms.

"I'm a failure…so much effort…wasted…curl up…want to die…"

As Nepgear continued to wallow in self pity Blanc overheard something she never **EVER** wanted to hear one of her sisters say.

It was a series of words that could only invite disaster when uttered by a child surrounded by dangerous machinery.

"Hey! What does this button do?"

"Shit…"

 **Click! Bzzzt! Woooooooommmmmmmmmmmm!**

"Ram I don't think you should have pressed that!"

"You little shits!" screamed Blanc who could see the twins standing next to machine as it sprang to life in a flurry of flashing lights and a cacophony of various mechanized noises.

"Momma Mia!" exclaimed Neptune "Thing one and thing two just turned on the Plot Device!"

"P.L.O.T. Device Nyu" corrected Broccoli "Also I would recommend moving Nyu. That thing looks like it's about to blow" she added as she, Gemma, and everyone else besides Blanc and the twins headed for cover.

"No! I never inverted the polarity field and triple tested the output optimizer!" shouted Nepgear who was dragged behind a counter by Vert "No time for that now dear!"

As the device kicked into gear and began to thrum with share energy the twins stood right next to it and continued to watch it with fascination. "Move you suicidal morons!" their sister screamed as she ran towards them, determined to kill them if by any chance they survived this.

When bolts of energy began to wildly shoot out of the machine and cause fires around the lab Rom and Ram finally realized they were in a bad place but by that point it was too late.

With a great whooshing noise a massive ball of energy appeared where the twins stood and engulfed them as they screamed.

"Ram! Rom!" Blanc called out in genuine fear as her sisters disappeared within the white sphere that then exploded and sent her and half the lab flying through the air.

 **BOOOOOOOOOM!**

A half second after the blast the sound of a thunder clap ripped through the air along with a flash of brilliant white light.

Once both the noise and light vanished things finally began to calm down as everyone worked to regain their senses.

Slowly CPU and human alike began to stir and dig themselves out of the rubble of the lab.

"Ouchie!" said Compa as she was helped up by Peashy who appeared to have lost her eye patch in the blast

Next to them Plutia shoved the remains of a metal shelf off of her feeling dazed but unhurt "What a boom! That kinda hurt in a good way…"

Noire began helping those the most affected by the blast as she had been the least hurt. Ironically in her efforts to help everyone she totally stepped over and missed her own sister who had done her best to shield Historie's tiny body

"Thank you Uni"

"No problem" Uni groaned with a hand to her side

With a flip Neptune easily leapt to her feet and began dusting herself off. To most people being exploded by one of Nepgear's machines was a big deal, to Neptune it was par for the course "Man why do all mysterious super devices have to explode!?"

Nepgear removed her face from a smiling Vert's giant boobs "I never completed the last few safety checks! It wasn't ready to turn on!"

"Hey someone check on the kids!" ordered IF who ran towards the back of the room to see how Blanc was

"On it" obeyed Neptune who began to dig through the rubble nearest the machine

"You ok Blanc?" asked IF

The CPU of Lowee had been thrown against the wall hard enough to leave a goddamn outline in it so naturally IF was worried for her.

Blanc's eyes were disoriented and she appeared weak, almost fearful "Rom and Ram? Are they….dead?"

"We don't know" answered IF with one hand of Blanc's shoulder "I'm sure they're fine"

"They better…(Cough) They better…."

"Hey I found someone over here! Actually I found two someones!" shouted Neptune

"...They better start SCREAMING!"

Healed through her sheer rage alone Blanc shot up to her feet and began sprinting towards where Neptune had discovered the twins buried with her hammer drawn.

"First I'm going to hug them then I'm going to beat them till they forget what not being in pain feels like!"

"Want some help?" Plutia offered with a metal pipe in her hand

"Huh? Um Blanc?"

The enraged CPU paid Neptune no mind as she stepped towards the most severe beating in the twins young life.

"Kill…Kill…"

"Blanc something is wrong here..."

"Time to die you little abominations!" screamed Blanc with her hammer held high over her head.

There was a pause as Blanc noticed something "Who the hell are you?!"

When she had reached the place Neptune was she wasn't greeted by the sight of her soon to be pummeled little sisters. Instead she was treated to the visage of a terrified young girl with sapphire blue hair and eyes wearing a white sailor outfit and a rabbit puppet on her right hand.

The mysterious girl looked up towards the hammer held above her like it was a executioner's axe and was shaking her her shoes.

"Please….don't hurt me!" she begged with tears in her eyes

Blanc dropped her hammer with a heavy thud "Where did this bitch come from?! Ram? Rom? Where are you?!" she called out across the room

As Blanc wandered away in search of her sisters Neptune bent down and greeted the new stranger with a handshake "Greetings there soon-to-be friend! I'm Neptune! Who are you?"

After seeing the scary girl with the hammer the blue haired girl was still scared but couldn't sense any hostility at all from Neptune and cautiously replied "Y-Yo-Yoshino. I'm Yoshino and this is Yoshinon" Yoshino lifted up her puppet to Neptune's face.

" **Greetings! Never thought I would meet a planet before!"** said the puppet who offered Neptune a handshake with it's little felt paws which the bubbly girl naturally accepted "Well I never thought I'd meet a Yoshinon before so this day is special to the both of us!"

"Ram? Rom!?" A terrified Blanc continued to look around the room for her missing sisters only to keep coming up empty."Where the hell are you two?!"

"I don't think they're here anymore Nyu" said Broccoli "Gemma can't sense them anywhere around here"

Compa gave the squishy ball a poke "Gemma can act like a bloodhound Broccoli?"

"Gemma has a great many skills Nyu"

"Well then where the fuck are they?!" roared Blanc

"Think them disappearing has anything to do with that girl over there?" IF asked while pointing to Yoshino who was being hugged by Neptune who found the girl irresistible

"Aw! We needed another animal themed Loli around here! Truth be told Broccoli was getting kinda old after Re; Birth 1"

(With ovaloid eyes)"...You bitch Nyu"

Blanc didn't care about any of this and grabbed hold of Yoshino by the shoulders

"You!"

"Ahhhh!"

"I want to know who the hell you are, where the hell you came from, and how the hell you ended up here!? NOW!"

After screaming in her face Blanc dropped the terrified girl to the ground "Th-There was a fight!"

'"And?!"

"I got hit!"

* * *

Author Note: Made a few small edits. Turns out 3:30 A.M. isn't the best time to do final checks on a new story before posting.


	2. Tutorial Level

**Nep A Live**

 **Chapter 2: Tutorial Level**

* * *

"Um sister? We appear to be falling really really far!"

"Shut up Rom I know! Just try and look cool!"

"How will looking cool help us not die?"

"We'll be like that Hero from the leanbox game Master Captain! He keeps getting thrown out of spaceships and stuff and he's always fine! Just pretend this is the start of Circlet 3 or that spin off about those ODSS guys!"

Ram and Rom held on tightly to each other as they fell through the sky towards a city below. Against the backdrop of the blue sky they could see signs of battle with plumes of smoke marking where robots were exploding by the dozen as two large airships did battle with laser cannons.

"What's going on? Why is there a fight going on Ram?"

"No idea but someone is getting their butts kicked that's for sure!"

"Are we going to be ok? We've been falling for a long time now!"

"Like I said just relax! As long as it's not a bottomless pit between moving platforms falling isn't that dangerous"

"Where are we going to land?"

"Probably the intro cutscene"

"Ram does that look like a mall?"

"Huh?"

Rom pointed towards the ground she and her sister were plunging towards head-first. Sure enough the two of them appeared to be falling right towards a mall of some type.

"Brace for impact Rom! We're about to hit like a bad launch title!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

 **Crash!**

Rom and Ram came crashing down though a ceiling skylight and impacted the ground floor of the two story mall like a pair of meteors. Both girls believed they were goners but had been saved by an amazing stroke of good luck in the form of a giant pile of stuffed animals located in the toy story they hit.

It still hurt like hell but a pile of fluff and fabric was much better than the solid ground that was their only other choice of landing pad. Ram shook off the impact and clambered over the mountain of plushies to see her sister splayed out on top of a giant stuffed panda.

"Rom you ok?"

Her sister opened her eyes and looked around in disbelief "We're alive?"

"Ha ha! Yup! We rule! Next time let's put on some white hoodies and aim for a bale of hay!" Ram sounded as though she was enjoying this.

Both girls lept off the pile and examined their surroundings.

"An empty mall? In the middle of the day?"

"...that seems weird sister"

"Wow there is like totally no one around!"

"Ram that big flashing sign up there says evacuate. It looks like everyone left"

All around the mall electronic signs displayed warnings of a mandatory spacequake evacuation.

"Sweet a whole mall to ourselves! We may have wrecked the toy store but I bet the candy store is ok! Lets go Rom!"

"Um sister? Maybe we should be more worried about where we are? I don't think we're in our world anymore…."

"Wait a sec! Fell from the sky...new world...just us...a fight going on outside…!? Rom! Do you know what this means?!"

"Um, I should cry?"

"No! We get our own game!"

"...Our own game?"

"Yes! Neptune is the main character and she falls from the sky all the time into new worlds! If we fell from the sky into a new world that means we're the heroines this time!"

"Wow! Really?" Rom's eyes were sparkling along with her sisters "We get to be the main characters?"

"Yup and it's totally awesomesauce! Ram&Rom the game! Suck on that Speedy&Fists!"

"What type of game do you think it is?" Rom puzzled "We're in a empty mall but there's no zombies around so it can't be Dead Uprising"

"Hmmm" Ram's hand went to her chin in thought "It's dark around here so maybe a stealth game? ! If so then…."

Ram reached into her bag and pulled out a eye patch "I always wanted to use this thing that guy in the cardboard box gave us! There!" Ram covered her right eye and stood up proudly "All set to sneak!"

"Um...I don't like stealth games either….they never let you run away really fast if you get caught"

"I got just the thing then!" Ram pulled out yet another item from her bag and placed it on Rom's head

It was a pair of bunny ears attached to a headband that managed to fit perfectly just in front of Rom's blue hat. "Sister...didn't that man from the happy mask shop tell us to give this to the running man in the field?"

"Nah! It's fine! Now you should move twice as fast!"

"Rom I think you're thinking of the one from Super Smash Sisters…."

"Never mind that! Let's go find the first level and the supporting characters! I wonder what our IF and Compa will look like?"

"What will we say if we run into them….?"

"Oh! Good question! Better pretend to have amnesia!"

"Why would we do that?"

"Isn't it obvious? Neptune lost her memories after falling from the sky and ended up with a franchise! If we pretend to not remember anything we'll get, like, 11 different games including a few spinoffs!" explained Ram with a clever smirk

"Wow! Ram is soooooooooooo smart!" said Rom in awe of her sister's wisdom

"Of course! Now then..."

 **Smash!**

"Sister! Bad guys!"

From in front of the twins came a series of strange looking robots who crashed through a wall and turned to face them menacingly. They walked on two legs, had a head, and had a pair of wicked looking claws with laser guns on them.

While Rom was frightened Ram was a bit less intimidated by the metallic death machines

"Yeah! Our first trash enemies! I should take a screenshot! They look way cooler than the Dogoos!"

"They look high level Ram...what if this is a forced loss tutorial?"

"Eh, I'm sure we'll be fine! They look though but they don't look any worse than mid-game mobs! Let's get em Rom!"

Ram charged towards the bots with her staff out and charged with Ice magic with her sister following close behind.

"...O-ok Ram….I'll do my b-best!"

* * *

Author Note: Short one today since I have a party to go to. I'm gonna try and keep this story short, simple, and funny so don't expect anything complex. Also it will mostly be focused on Ram and Rom.


	3. Loading

**Nep A Live**

 **Chapter 3: Loading….**

Back in the Planeptune Basilicom lab everyone was working to clear the mess that had been made after the device had exploded. Blanc's interrogation of the girl called Yoshino had stalled out since she had passed out only a few seconds after mentioning being blown out of the sky by an attack.

Seeing that her method was ineffective Historie took the blue haired girl away from the CPU and brought her to another part of the building to calm her down and politely ask her some questions once she woke up from her fainting spell.

This left a pissed off Blanc to take out her frustration on the debris Nepgear asked to have broken up with her hammer. They didn't _need_ the debris broken up truth be told, but what they did _need_ was something for Blanc to hit with a hammer that wasn't breathing…

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

 **BANG! CRASH! SMASH!**

Blanc crushed large chunks of rubble with each swing, cursing up a storm the whole time. Aside from her everyone was doing their part to get things cleaned up with the stronger girls (Tekken) moving the bigger pieces and the smaller ones (Broccoli) looking through the random bits for anything that looked important.

At a table nearby Nepgear and MAGES oversaw repairs to the machine with the original blueprints between them.

"Ok, it looks like the magical condenser didn't take too big of a hit"

"Ah, but look! Half of this prism relay is gone. Repairs are impossible so another must be found in the local dungeons"

"The bigger problem is the Haceylon Device. That one was custom ordered from Lastation and took weeks to be made"

MAGES bit her nail "That is going to be a problem...What timetable are we looking at here? I assume the polarity fields won't remain stable for long in this state?"

"It'll be a hassle but I can keep them neutral manually until we can fix it"

"Ah technobabble..." sighed Neptune as she walked over towards her sister "I assume this is a very busted machine based on what you're saying?"

"Sister it shouldn't be dangerous to the Basilicom but without all the parts working we won't be able to fire up the device again. Without it we may not be able to travel to wherever Ram and Rom ended up" Nepgear's shoulders shank with depression "Ram...Rom...I hope they're ok…"

"Oh relax Nep Jr! I'm sure those two will be A-ok! So far this hasn't been anywhere near as disastrous as the whole NepBot 3000 fiasco! I still don't understand why that thing spoke french..."

"I wish I shared your confidence Purple Goddess however we still do not know in what world the twins of ice ended up" MAGES actually sounded a little worried for the two "Trust me as someone who has traveled dimensions multiple times; you may end up in a benign world where everyone is gender swapped or you could just as easily end up being sent to a blasted hellscape full of zombie-creating headcrabs. You do not want to end up in such a world without a crowbar I assure you"

This got the attention of the other CPU's "How do we not know they just ended up in Plutia's word? There's already a connection between our two worlds so maybe they just traveled along the weakest link?" suggested Noire

"It just doesn't work that way assistant. In the great plan not everything is so simple"

"We sent little Plutie and Peashy back there to check anyway. Histy should give us a ring as soon as they can to tell us what they found"

"I assume you're talking about the other me?" From the doorway glided in the book-bound oracle, fresh from her interview with Yoshino "Oh hey Histy! Just get done with Yoshi?"

Noire threw Neptune a glance "You're starting with the pet names already?"

"Neptune is correct, I have just completed my talk with our new visitor" Historie actually seemed to be blushing for some reason "She reacted exceedingly well to my overtures and even called me a "motherly" figure. After comparing me to a woman known as Reine from her world I began a line of questioning from that and learned all I could from her responses"

"Big win for Histy! Let's hear what you got!"

Histoire cleared her throat and began to explain all that Yoshino and Yoshinon had told her of their world.

* * *

"...It was after this Origami was sealed that she and her friends decided to go on a shopping trip together. During this trip DEM launched a surprise ambush and the wizard known as Mathers attempted to attack Yoshino point blank with some new weapon subsystem that would have likely killed her not for our interference. She was dragged into our world mere moments before that cannon blast hit her and woke up in Nepgear's lab"

"Whew! Thank god for jump cuts! That was a lot of exposition to listen to!"

"Indeed, I was worried this was going to be one of those explanations that required a wall of text. Anything more than 50 lines of text before more gameplay is just bad design" agreed Vert

"Still crazy though, a world full of spirits who have to rescued by being kissed? Plus all these AST and DEM guys running around along with a killer Yandere who eats people" Noire turned to Blanc "I hope those two will be ok…I don't like what I've heard about this world"

Blanc actually seemed to be smiling now which concerned the other CPUs

"Um? Blancy? You DO realize Histy just told us Ram and Rom probably ended up in a world full of things that will try to kill them right? Neptune asked while Blanc continued to grin

"Oh I know…" her smile seemed to get brighter

Neptune leaned in towards Noire and whispered to her "Um Noire? Is it just me or is Blanc losing it?"

"Weird, normally she'd just start smashing stuff while swearing about now…"

Histoire was a bit more direct with the CPU in white "Blanc are you not worried?"

Blanc actually giggled before she replied "What? No! I'm actually relived!"

"Oh...May I ask why?"

With a calm composure Blanc folded her arms "Because there's no way that world has any chance to hold those two under control. Up till now I was worried they'd be stuck in limbo or vaporized between dimensions but if they're just stuck in this new world I'm sure they'll be fine"

Historie's shock was obvious "That-That's quite the confidence you have in their power. Are you certain of such an appraisal?"

"I've lived with those two for _years_ now. I don't care how many damn robots or cannibals get sent at them, they'll just blow them away in some stupid game!"

Neptune was next to be worried "Blanc that still seems like you're selling them a bit far"

There was a bitter venom inside Blanc's tone "Those two are a force of nature that destroy _**EVERYTHING**_ they touch! I've lost _**THOUSANDS**_ of books to them, replaced _**DOZENS**_ of walls, and once watched them attempt to race in giant battle mechs _**INSIDE**_ the Basilicom!"

"(Nervous Laugh) Blanny? You seem to getting a bit dark there…."

"The sheer destructive potential of those two without supervision is beyond human or CPU comprehension. Where it not for me and Mina they would have almost certainly reduced Lowee to rubble by now. Never should you underestimate what they can manage to destroy in the name of "fun"..."

Blanc now remembered some of the worst the twins had done and shuddered at that thought of them let loose upon a new world with no one there to stop them.

" _Hey sis! Look at these cool laser rifles we "borrowed" from Uni's collection"_

" _Blanc look! We figured out how to cut our bed in half and tape it together to make a bunk bed!"_

" _Blanc! Where do we keep the fire extinguisher? Our fireworks didn't go off as planned upstairs"_

" _Hey Blanc! Look at how cool I am with this bow! I'm gonna shoot some magic fire arrows at an apple on Rom's head like that Zelda guy!"_

" _Aw! I really thought the minigun would get rid of that spider…."_

" _Rom let's try rocket jumping!"_

" _Rom let's go beat up those chickens outside!...What do you mean they're called Cuccos?"_

" _Ram look! I found this weird black plant with a fuse on it! Let's plant them in the garden!"_

" _Fireball fight!"_

" _Big sis! We found a great new game to play! It's called Bombchu bowling!"_

" _WEEEEEE! I told you these warp stars are fun to fly!"_

" _Wow these Landmaster things are fun! Tank fight!"_

"Um Blanc? You ok? You appear to be shivering. Are you cold?" Noire asked when she saw her friend shaking

"That's not cold. That's terror…pure terror…"

Neptune lightly elbowed Vert to get her attention and whispered "Wow Blanc looks like me everytime I hear Nep Jr say she's invented something new"

"I do suppose there are downsides to having a actual little sister after all..."

Histoire's voice knocked Blanc out of her stupor "Regardless of threat we need to determine how to best handle the situation we are now presented with. Rom and Ram are more than likely in a world that is hostile to them where beings of great power are feared and not worshiped, they will not be seen as goddesses but rather as enemies"

"Hard to believe there's a world with no CPUs or goddesses. Have these "spirit" things considered offering up their services or starting their own lands to rule over?" questioned Vert

The busty and beloved goddess couldn't imagine being treated as an abomination to be destroyed and was frightened by the idea of being without worship.

"With how crowded Yoshino claimed their world is in order to found a new nation they would need to destory one that already exists. By the sounds of it this Rataoskr organization was founded to help the spirits become normal girls so they could never consider conquest"

In a flash Noire's and neptune's eyes bulged "Ah! Don't say that word!" they both shouted at Histoire

"What word?"

"The C-Word!" they replied in unison

Vert put a hand to her lips in the fashion of one who had just heard something scandalous "My My, I didn't hear her say _that_ word and trust me I've dealt with online shooter voice chat long enough to know what it is"

"Not _that_ C-Word!" corrected Noire "The _other_ C-Word!"

"Um Conquest?" guessed Histoire causing both the Lastation and Planeptune CPU to jump

"Yes that one!" hissed Noire

Neptune was flailing her arms around wildly in a panic "NO! The memories! The Conquest ending! They're coming back!"

"Keep it together Neptune!"

"Noire...must….have...distraction!"

Neptune leaned forward onto Noire and began to fondle her breasts with her hands causing the black haired CPU to question her motives "What are you doing!? I Ohhhh…. Stop it!"

"Can't! Fanservice...only way to keep...from remembering!"

Using her own diminutive boobs Neptune began to rub against Noire's chest in a shameless display of blushing and moaning that didn't stop Noire from complaining "I don't care what you say! Stop-eh!-this right now!"

"The Rom and Ram scene!"

"Oh God it's in my head! Keep rubbing!" howled Noire in desperation as she joined in

Histoire, Vert, and Blanc looked on in shocked confusion as a unsuspecting Nepgear and Uni walked up

"Hey guys! I think I figured ou-what the goodness!?"

"What the hell is going on here! Quit molesting my big sister!"

"What happened here Lady Vert?!"

Vert didn't take her eyes off the duo as Uni attempted to force Neptune to let go of her sister's breasts "I don't know but it has something to do with a Conquest ending"

"No! Don't mention that to Nep Jr! She just got done with therapy two weeks ago!"

"C-C-C-Conquest e-e-e-e-e-ending?!" The CPU candidate's body began to spasm while foam leaked from her mouth

 _Vert used mind-shredding PTSD! It's super effective!_

 **Thud!**

 _Nepgear has fainted!_

"Ah My Nepgear! What has happened to you?!"

"Rom...Ram…Sister...I'm so sorry…Why does everyone hate me now?"

Nepgear collapsed to the ground in a fetal position with Vert watching over her as she mumbled in her sleep.

With a great sigh Neptune walked over to Blanc and took the hammer out of her confused hands "I suppose it can't be helped….sorry about this Nep Jr but Mr. Happy Hammer here is going to have to be your therapy this time"

 **Twack!**

"Oww!"

A solid blow to the head from the borrowed hammer brought Nepgear back to her senses with no memory of what happened and a giant bump where she was struck.

"Ugh….What happened?"

"Oh nothing Nep Jr. You were about to tell us something important when you tripped on Blanc's hammer and fell. You seem to be ok so what were you going on about before your "accident?"

"Ah Yes! I came here to tell everyone I have good news!"

Blanc yanked her hammer out of Neptune's hands and reacted to the news with hope & skepticism "Please tell me it's a way to rescue Rom and Ram while I'm still mad enough to strangle them to death"

"It's not quite that good…." Blanc growled at Nepgear like an angry dog "But it's still really good! I swear! I figured out how to fix the machine! It won't be easy but repairs should be done in a little over…."

"Let me guess Nep Jr. Three somethings right?"

"Um...yes, three months. How did you know big sister?"

"Plot Devices tend to either work in threes or fours, it's almost always three somethings with Histy and since the device was based on her I figured as much"

Across the room Falcom called out to Blanc "Oh Lady Blanc can you come over here please? Mina is calling for you from the Lowee Basilicom. She said it's urgent! Something about a storage key?"

"Oh what now?! I'm coming!" said Blanc who stormed over to deal with the situation while Histoire attempted to defend her efficiency to Neptune and the remaining CPU and CPU candidates

"Now that's not true Neptune, I don't always work in time units of three! If I wanted to I could work much fas- **Live and learn! Hanging on to the edge of tomorrow** -Oh Goddess what is happening to me?!- **Live and learn! From the works of yesterday Live and learn! If you beg or if you borrow** -somebody stop me!- **Live and learn! You may never find your way** -HELP!"

Everyone stared at Historie as the small oracle appeared to spontaneously begin singing against her will. She appeared frightened as her body acted of its own accord to keep singing a song she didn't even recognize in almost perfect pitch. It didn't take a genius to figure out who was the cause of this phenomenon though as the culprit was laughing at her the whole time.

"Wow Histy! Nice pipes! Ever consider being an idol or doing some work on game OSTs?" asked Neptune

"Neptune!- **Can you feel life tangle you up inside?** -Why am I singing?!"

"That's simple silly, I set your ringtone weeks ago. No offense but your vibrate mode was kinda boring"

"I have- **But you can't save your sorrow you've paid in trade!** \- ringtones?!"

"So that means Histy is getting a call from smaller Histy?" Compa asked

"That more than likely means they have something to report. Nep pick up the call so we can find out what it is" ordered IF

"Sure! Just let me figure out how to do that. Poke! Poke! Poke!"

"Poking me won't do anything! Stop! You're messing with my settings!" Historie screamed

She had stopped signing for the moment but while she was attempting to adjust herself back to vibrate mode Neptune started poking her in the belly which resulted in Histories settings getting increasingly scrambled.

"Stop! Stop! _Stop!_ Parar! STOOOOOOOOOPPPPPP! **Ragle Fragle!** _Stop!_ (xox)Stop poking me! Stop!"

"Hang on Histy I think I almost got it!"

" _Hello? Other me? Are you there? (n_n)"_ came the voice of past Histoire from across worlds

"Ah ha! Told you Histy! Easy peasy!" trumpeted Neptune in triumph

"Don't ever mess with my settings again Neptune you stupid bitch!"

"Woah! Histy! Language! The other you is just a kid you know!"

" _My virgin ears! (o_O)"_

"What?! I didn't mean…why the hell did I just swear? !? What the fuck?!...I didn't mean!…God dammit!"

"Never thought I'd hear Histy sound like Blanc!"

"You dumb-ass Neptune! You disabled my fucking profanity filter!" swore the oracle

" _Is that why you're swearing big Histy?"_ asked Plutia from the other world

"Ugh It sounds like I'm playing Duty Calls" sneered Vert

As she passed by holding a pile of motherboards Broccoli commented "Much worse things have been said through a headset Nyu"

"Yes! I'm so used to having that piece of shit turned on that my mind has no natural method for dealing with foul language! I can't fucking stop!"

"Whoopsie!"

"Other me how in the hell do I stop this shit?!"

" _Go to settings and hit restore defaults(-_-;)"_

"..." Histoire's eyes blanked out as she undid the damage caused by Neptune "Ok (Clears through) Fudge Darn it!...I'm back to normal!" she cheered

Plutia clap could be heard across the line _"Good for you big Histy! Only Blanny is cute when she swears…"_

"Thank you Plutia...I guess. Do you have a report for us?"

From the other end there was a depressing sigh _"Sorry but they didn't end up here at all. Everyone from this world is looking but there wasn't anything to suggest they landed here"_

Histoire mimicked the sigh "I suppose it was too much to hope for but thank you anyway Plutia, you are a big help. This means that more than likely both Ram and Rom did end up in Yoshino's world after all"

"That's going to be a huge problem then" stated Blanc, fresh from her conversation with Mina

The way she said that worried Noire "I thought you said they're fine of their own only a few minutes ago? What changed?"

"I'm not worried about them anymore, I'm worried about everyone else _around_ them" Blanc explained "I just got off the phone with Mina and she told me the main Lowee Historical exhibit was broken into this morning by someone with a key" her eyebrows lowered in anger "As far as I know there are only four people who knew that the key was kept in my office inside the first book I ever wrote and I'm sure as shit that it wasn't Mina who stole it"

"Ram and Rom?" Noire asked

"Bingo…." Blanc looked extremely frustrated and felt a massive headache coming on

Question marks appeared over Neptune's head as she turned to the suffering CPU "Why would anyone rob a boring old museum exibit thing?"

Upset my Neptune's stupidity a fierce scowl appeared on Blanc's face "Since you obviously don't know, I'll explain..." Blanc took a moment to clear her throat before starting up what sounded like a sales pitch "...As you may know Lowee has a long and proud history of great heroes no other nation can even compare to. Since shares have been… _lacking_ as of late we came up with the idea of reminding others of that great history-"

"-As always you rely on bringing out the same old dinosaurs to carry the weight of your sagging innovation and poor third party support-" Vert smirked while Noire bitterly muttered under her breath "Lastion has some good heroes too little miss history buff!"

If she heard them Blanc pretended not to "So we came up with the idea of throwing together an exhibit of Lowee's history that would hopefully reinvigorate faith in me and the nation. In basic terms we gathered a large number of great artifacts from our many venerated games and planned to parade them around to the people so they could be reminded of these wonderful times"

Noire reacted to the lecture rather bluntly "So rather than attempt to make any new IP you continued to hide behind the red plumber and elf with the green hat like you always do?"

"Normally I'd beat your ass until all your teeth fall out but at the moment I'm a little too preoccupied by my burning rage towards Ram" Blanc coldly replied

"So then what type of Art-E-Facts are we talking about here Blanc? Old jars? Rusted suits of armor? Old Boss Door Dungeon keys?" asked Neptune who had never really cared much about stuff like that

"Much worse…" taking a note out of her pocket Blanc handed the paper to the other CPUs "Mina sent over this list along with a message saying the key had been found under Ram's blanket. The main storage room held some of Lowee's greatest treasures that were due for refurbishment before being put on display. That storeroom was full to the brim with iconic weapons, power ups, and equipment when it was raided by that filthy little demon spawn!"

Neptune, Noire, and Vert looked over the paper and were genuinely impressed by what they saw

"(Whistle) Wow Blanc I forgot how much awesome stuff you guys had! This is like a what's what of kickass Lowee weapons and items"

"Geeze! Lastation can't even make a list half this long" Noire sighed "Now I feel depressed…"

"My my! This is quite the inventory! What was stolen?"

Vert could see Blanc actually shiver in response "That **IS** what was stolen..."

Leanbox's CPU actually did a double take and choked " **This** is what was stolen?! All of it?!" her eyes retraced the paper from top to finish "By the Goddess!"

Blanc held her head low and forebodingly "I'd be afraid for that world. I'd be **VERY** afraid…"

* * *

Back in the mall Ram and Rom were currently fighting their way through things had been going well enough so far for the two candidates as they continued to blast back robot after robot with spells.

Neither girl knew why the robots were attacking them specifically but in the heat of the moment they chose not to question it as yet more continued to pour in from outside through the holes they blasted into the walls and roof.

"16,17,18,19, 20! What are you at Rom?

"E-Force Blizzard!" A colossal explosion of ice magic annihilated five of the bots at one in front of Rom "Um...29?"

"What?! How are you higher than me?!"

"I remembered what Vert taught us about low level enemies…."

" _Remember you two when faced with trash mobs always abuse your AOE spells. Don't let up until everything that stands before you is dead!"_

"I could have thought of that too Rom! Eternal Force Blizzard!" four of the robots were obliterated by Ram's spell while attempting to flank the two on the second story "That's not going to work you dummie!s"

"Um Ram? I think they're going to try something new…" called out the sister in blue

Looking up Rom could see a swarm of the mechanical monsters flying around next to the ceiling in formation as if they were planning something. All at once they focused their firepower downwards onto Ram in a torrent of laser blasts that looked terrifying but didn't count on one factor

 _0,miss, 0,0,miss,0,0,0,0,miss,0,miss,miss,0,0_

The barrage was totally ineffective against the CPU candidate who began to bitterly retaliate with her own ice and wind attacks.

"Take this! Hey! Stop moving you dummies! Argh! Why. Won't. You. All. Die?!" shouted Ram as the swarm began to rapidly strafe at the very end of ram's range

"Ram I think you need to take off that eyepatch...it lowers your TEC quite a bit…" Rom pointed out only for Ram to reply "No way! It looks way too cool to just leave behind!"

Ram swiftly dove into her bag to look for something "I have another idea! Just wait one second!"

"Oh dear, using gear with bad stats because it looks cool. Vert would be so mad at us…" Rom mumbled knowing how Vert tended to be the queen of Min Maxed stats in all her games

"Ah Ha! Here it is!" cheered Ram as she pulled a small cylindrical device with a handle from her bag

It was purplish blue in color and had some sort of chain ending in a spike wrapped around it, Rom swore she recognized it from somewhere but Ram never gave her enough time to ask where as she pointed it toward the sky.

"Prepare to be Water Temple'd you dummies!" Ram shouted as the chain and spike shot out of the end of the device and sunk into the chest cavity of it's targeted robot. With a metallic grinding noise the machine was dragged down towards Ram who easily dispatched it with a close range ice blast.

This pattern was repeated for the remaining bots and before long all that remained of the enemy force was a bunch of scrap metal coated in ice. The twins had won this battle but if the rumbling of more explosions off in the distance was any clue yet more was to come.

"Water Temple'd?" Rom asked puzzled once the battle had ended

Reveling in her victory Ram proudly answered "Yup! Water Temple'd: To be beaten and tormented to the point you beg for the sweet embrace of death!"

"Are you sure that's a real saying?"

"Yes! Now let's get out of here before we ½ Life 3, that would be totally dude Nukem Forever'd!" Ram took off running towards the distant sounds of battle echoing throughout the mall "Come on on Rom! I bet that's our supporting cast! I want to get our tank and main damage dealer before the first boss shows up!"

"Oh! Coming Ram!"

"Also, It's dangerous to go alone! Take this! !" with a heave Ram tossed Rom a blue version of the hook device she had used before "It's the shorter version but it's still good enough for the Forest Temple!"

Finally Rom recognized the two devices Ram had somehow acquired "Ram where did you get the Hookshot and Longshot? I thought those were…"

"Who cares about the details!? Let's go!"

Ram took her sister's hand and began dragging her towards where she was certain the next event marker would be.

* * *

After heading to the second floor due to rubble the twins finally reached the far end of the mall where they could see a party of girls and one boy doing battle with the robots they had been facing since their arrival.

From their hidden overlook the two critiqued what they believed to be their team for this game in hushed tones as they continued to watch them blast down bot after bot.

"What do you think Ram?"

"Hmmmm" Ram put a hand to her chin "I'm a little annoyed that all of them are bigger than us…"

"Yeah I know, look at that one with the keyboard!"

"You mean the support with the giant bazooms? Yeah I see her…"

"Oh Ram look at those two! Twins! We get to hang out with a second set of twins!"

"Two sets of twins in one game? What idiot did character design here?!"

"I think they're DPS, that wind magic seems pretty strong and they look so cool!" said Rom with sparkles in her eyes

"Purple looks like a tank to me, she seems heavy and has that giant sword"

"I wonder what that boy is? He seems kinda weak right Ram?"

"You sure that's a boy? None of Neptune's games EVER had a boy in the party. Maybe he's like Kei from Lastation and just looks like one?"

"I don't know…."

"Ah well, they're what we're getting so we better make the most of this!" Ram stood up and dusted herself off "Let's get ready for our big entrance!"

Rom also stood up and asked "What type of entrance?"

"I'm sure something will-"

 **Crash!**

"Ahhhhh!"

"Ahhhhh!"

The twins did get a spectacular entrance but they weren't the ones to make it, instead it was the girl with short white hair who came shooting through the ceiling like a cannon ball that got to make an impact. With a colossal boom she hit the balcony the twins were standing on and sent all three girls hurtling towards the floor below...

* * *

Author Note: So here you go, the next chapter. Put a little bit more effort into this one since this story has gotten such good feedback. Please continue to leave reviews if you want to see more of the story. Sorry for any mistakes, I was in a bit of a rush to get this one out today before I had to go somewhere.


	4. Bonus 1

**Nep A Live**

 **Bonus Chapter: Collectible Calling**

Neptune: Hey there folks! Neptune here to let you all know this is a nice bonus chapter to keep everyone entertained while the author works on other things. This chapter took less time to write than it takes a youtube video to buffer so judge accordingly. As always leave a sweet, sweet review; those things are like crack to amateur authors like Blanc. Today's bonus chapter is brought to you by the letter R for References!

* * *

After things had died down in Nepgear's Lab everyone had gone their own ways for the afternoon including Blanc who had volunteered to take Yoshino back home to the Lowee Basilicom so she could stay in Rom and Ram's room.

While everyone was off doing their own thing the ever busy Historie had taken up a rather interesting task in an effort to help locate the twins.

"I see...Thank you anyway for your time, I know you must be very busy with your student"

 _" It's no problem Histy, Goku can handle his own battles now"_

"Are you sure? I thought he was dead...again"

" _Well you know how that song and dance goes around here!_ _"_

"So it would always seem, regardless I bid you farewell and your student luck with his battles"

" _Always a pleasure to hear from you Histoire and I hope you find the twins you're looking for!_ _"_

With a polite bow Histoire hung up the magical phone she had been on and crossed off another name from the list she was keeping on the desk.

"KK didn't see them either…"

Currently both she and her past self were coordinating to use their cross-dimensional communication powers to reach out to a number of contacts they had among beings of great power from other worlds. The working theory was that the twins ended up in Yoshino's world but until the device could be repaired the two oracles decided to double check elsewhere in light of any concrete proof of where they were.

It was slow work mostly meant to keep them feeling like they were actually helping but at the very least it gave Histoire a chance to socialize with those who knew her blight on certain levels.

' _Speaking of which...'_ thought Histoire as she opened up her book of numbers and dialed the number marked "Big E"

Within a second the room was filled with a booming male voice full of power and authority.

" _Who has contacted me?!_ "

"Oh! Sorry! Did I get you at a bad time?"

" _That voice...Histoire?_ "

"Um, yes! Sorry it's been awhile since I last called. Things been rough around here"

" _Think nothing of it_ "

"I'm glad. So how are things with you?"

" _The usual_ "

"So same old same old?"

" _If by that you mean sitting on this golden throne watching everything I've built be twisted by an ideology that represents everything I once despised while continually imagining the day I can rise up and kick the collective inquisition so had in the balls their souls are cast into the deeper reaches of the warp, then yes_ "

"You really don't like the inquisition do you?"

" _I've been spending the last four months trying to send the leader of the inquisitions' personal transport flying off course into a sun_ "

"That's a bit extreme I suppose but I can understand that you would want to pursue those who mean ill will towards your empire"

" _It's not even ill will! I'd love it if the degradation of the Imperium was the result of some grand conspiracy but truthfully it's all sheer incompetence!_ "

"Ah yes...I forgot about the quality of your "followers""

" _Do you have any idea what it's like to watch someone who has no idea what they're doing try to rule?!_ "

"Ugh...More than you can know…"

" _Want to share stories of how much we hate our faithful fools?_ "

"Another time, I'm calling on a different matter. Could you check to see if two small twin Goddesses with brown hair and ice magic have appeared in that world? They fell out of ours a few hours ago and we seek to find them before any harm befalls them"

" _I will personally check across the entire infinite cosmos and the deepest realms of the unknowable warp for you...ok done_ "

"Anything?"

 _"Well there's a Slaaneshi pleasure cult worshiping two twin demonettes on Kaurva IV but both those were blondes, besides that nothing"_

"I appreciate the effort"

" _It was no matter. Please call upon me anytime_. "

"That sounds good. I'll call about more casual things another time"

" _Ok...Back to what I was doing, attempt #462514 to teach the Inquisition the true meaning of holy flames…_ "

The line cut off as Histoire marked off another name on the list "Another world and still no luck. I'm debating if this is worth the effort"

"Anything on your end or are we just wasting time?" she asked to a video monitor showing her younger self from Plutia's world who still had a phone to her ear"

" _Nothing I'm afraid...oh! Give me a sec! Just need to finish up this call! I found a bit of a chatter box over here! (._.)_

" _And then my student and her friends found the three of friendship..._ _"_

" _Oh! I'm sorry princess but I really need to go now! There's others I need to call before I get off of work. (~_~;)"_

" _Pardon my rudeness! I forgot you had a duty to complete! It was just so much fun speaking to a new friend and entity of great power who wasn't my sister_ _"_

" _ **WHO DOTH MENTION THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT WHILE ON THY MAGICAL TELEPHONE!?**_ _ **"**_

" _Sister! Inside voice!_ _"_

" _ **THIS IS MY INSIDE VOICE!**_ _"_

" _Ugh, pardon me I have to go explain to my sister about the royal Canterlot voice again. Goodbye!_ _"_

Histoire watched her younger self put down the phone and sigh in relief _"Thank goodness! I talked to so many freaks I think I need to take a bath! (o_o)"_

"I know the feeling but it was worth the effort"

" _I thought we didn't do anything? (o_0)"_

"Yes, but we can explain to Plutia and Neptune we were too busy doing this to deal with any paperwork they had for us today"

" _I like it! (n_n)"_

"You mentioned little ole me Histy?" sang Neptune from behind Histoire

"Neptune! When did you get here? How much did you hear?!"

"Just my name, what are you two up to anyway?"

"Whew! It's nothing...We were just attempting to find the twins by contacting other worlds"

"You can call worlds other than Plutia's?" asked Neptune with her head titled to the side in thought "Can I try?!" she asked with a joyful bounce

Histoire was worried that talking to Neptune would mean getting back to what she had been explaining to her other self so she decided to go along with the request and offered her the phone.

"Ok you put in the numbers here and when someone picks up you talk to them"

"I've worked a phone before Histy…"

"Anyway over there is a viewing screen if you wish to see the one on the other line"

"Here we go!" Neptune cheerily dialed in random numbers and symbols until the line started ringing

 **Ring! Ring! Ring!**

"Gosh I hope they're not at dinner or something. I'd hate to feel like a telemarketer" worried Neptune

On the screen appeared the image of a girl in a red hooded outfit sitting in a dorm room; in her hands was a small dog she was playing with on the bottom of what looked like a jury rigged bunk bed held up with tape. Noticing the sound of her phone she picked glanced at the screen with confusion before picking up "Um hello?"

"Oh hi there! Who am I speaking to?"

"Name's Ruby, who is this? I don't recognize the number"

"Hi Ruby my name is Neptune I'm here to ask you a few short questions today!"

"Agh! Not again with you people! I told you before I don't care about how my bank tellers talk to me! Well I suppose that's not entirely true...I would get mad if there were super rude and spat on my shirt or something but that's not the point! I'm not taking anymore of your stupid surveys!"

"That's not what I'm calling about…"

"Oh…" this Ruby girl sounded embarrassed about going off like that "So then...is this a religious or political thing? Like a cult recruitment or something? Are you going to try and get me to donate to the White Fang?"

"I have no idea who that is and no, I'm calling to ask if you've seen any crossovery cross-dimensional rift things or a pair of cute twin girls with brown hair and a butt load of ice magic?"

"No recently sorry"

"Oh too bad; thanks anyway and by the way cute dog!"

Neptune could see Ruby's face turn white "You can see me...?"

"Oh yeah! You have a cool red hood on, a sweet combat skirt, and is that a shotgun scythe in the corner there?"

"Sniper, I mean…! How can you see me?! Are you a stalker?!"

On the screen the girl began to tear apart her room looking for hidden people or cameras only to find nothing but air.

"Well you see I'm calling from another world…"

"Another world?! You mean like…a GHOST!"

"Zoinks! I'm a ghost?!"

"YANG THERE'S A GHOST CALLING ME! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The line and image went dead as the girl blindly leapt from her window in a frenzied panic.

Both Oracle and CPU stared at the black screen for a good minute afterward before Histoire spoke up

"That really could have gone better…"


	5. Meet the Team

**Nep A Live**

 **Chapter 4: Meet the Team**

"You bastards won't stop us from saving Yoshino!"

"Oh darling is so handsome when he's determined like this!"

"Save the romaching for after we save Yoshino from death's door!"

"Statement. These bots are hindering our progress! We must defeat them quickly!"

"You dumb metal things won't stop me from saving Yoshino!"

" _You five need to hurry up! Origami can only keep DEM busy for so long!"_

As the four spirits and one human fought their way through the mall lobby against wave after wave of combat robots the boy among them couldn't help but think of how things had gotten so out of control so quickly.

It had been a few weeks after Origami had been sealed and in an effort to ease her into the group Kotori had arranged a nice shopping trip so each girl could pick up a few Christmas gifts for each other. The idea had been that while shopping for and with one another they might help Origami better understand them on a more personal level and for the first hour it had been going well with Tohka helping the former wizard pick out gifts for Yoshino and Miku. Suddenly a spacequake alarm had gone off while they had been taking a small break at a food court and all hell had broken loose shortly after with DEM launching a surprise attack out of nowhere against Shido and the girls! After the civilians had been evacuated by DEM the entire shopping district had been put on lockdown by an unspeakable mass of wizards and bandersnatch that erected a perimeter to encircle his group on the ground while a Ship held Kotori and reinforcements at bay.

In the ensuing battle they had found out why DEM would attack like this when Ellen Mathers herself had shown up out of the blue equiped with some new anti-spirit weapon DEM had developed. The bastards wanted to use it in a live fire test with the sealed spirits as the guinea pigs! Kotori couldn't get a reading on what type of weapon it was but considering it had blasted poor little Yoshino right out of the sky in one hit Shido could tell it was bad news.

"Yoshino…" worried Shido

She hadn't even been leading the charge like Kaguya or Yuzuru, they had ambushed her while she was providing support from the rear and shot her point blank with that damn cannon!

Terror had gripped Shido and the others when Kotori reported Yoshino's vital signs had completely vanished after the hit and it looked like Natsumi had been ready to inverse then and there upon hearing the news only to be greeted with a sign of hope moments later. It had been faint but thankfully Rataoskr had detected something falling towards a nearby mall on a trajectory that matched what Yoshino's would have been as she fell. Everyone was overcome with joy a minute later when Reine reported intercepted DEM communications warning that the bandersnatch units which had gone to investigate the impact sight had been destroyed by ice magic. Natsumi had taken off towards the site without a second's hesitation while Shido and most of the other spirits did their best to follow her. Rather nobly Origami had elected to stay away and distract DEM herself but only after Shido made her promise not to take any chances and to come back alive.

By the time the less stealthy spirits had breached the mall DEM was everywhere and Natsumi was nowhere to be seen. After a brutal fight the last of their opponents appeared to be defeated but there was no time to rest!

Over the intercom came a frantic cry from Kotori _"Ah! Shido! Origami's been hit! She's coming down right on top of you!"_

Within moments a thunderous boom shook the lobby as Origami crashed through the ceiling and impacted a second floor railing sending herself and a pair of blue and pink blobs sailing towards the floor.

"G-Girls?" screamed Shido when he realized what was falling alongside Origami "Someone catch them!"

"I got it!" came a shout before a nearby trash can turned into Natsumi who had been hiding in plain sight since she wasn't the type for open combat

With a simple flick of her broom the ground below the three falling girls turned into giant pillow which sent feathers flying everywhere when they hit.

Shodo and the rest of the spirits ran over and gazed at a rather peculiar sight…

"Two Pairs. More twins!"

"Why do I suddenly feel less unique...?"

"Aw I was hoping it was Yoshino!"

"SO CUTE!"

"Shido do you know who they are?"

"N-No...They must have gotten lost or something during the evacuation"

Shido looked over the two with worry, both were very young girls wearing matching blue and pink winter coats topped with puffy hats with the one in pink with long hair sporting a black eyepatch for some odd reason and the one in blue with short hair donning a pair of yellow bunny ears. While it had been colder of late since it was December it hadn't been cold enough to warrant this type of heavy clothing; the fact that they had been bundled up so much likely indicated a overbearing caretaker, the type of person who would likely severely worry about these two running around during a spacequake!

"Owwww…What idiot was casting meteor without looking!?" complained the one with the longer hair in pink

"Who brought us into the coliseum underleveled…?" added the one with the shorter hair in blue

"Hey! Are you two ok?!" Shido bent down and checked the two for wounds

These girls were just civilians who had somehow not been evacuated in time meaning anything that happened to them was all because of DEM's attack on himself and the spirits! The idea of mere innocent bystanders getting hurt in their crossfire frightened Shido "Kotori! There are civilians here! Two young girls!"

" _What!? Did DEM really do such a halfassed job preparing for this little ambush of theirs?!"_

Yuzuru had a hand to her hip and cooly commented "Scorn. Odds are they just didn't care enough to be thorough"

" _Are they hurt?!"_

"Um are you two ok?" asked Tohka who bent down and curiously poked the squishy pink hat of the long haired girl

"Oh you poor dears! Let Miku kiss you and make it all better!" offered the idol who was being held back by both twins for the safety of their two new arrivals

"Eh, we're fine" stated the pink one simply as she got to her feet and dusted herself off

The other had semi-teary eyes but tried to act ok "Ugu...It'll take more than this to make me cry…"

"Oh geeze Rom! Here, let me make it better for you!" said pink as she leaned in and kissed this "Rom" on the forehead

This gave her a soft smile "Thanks Ram...I feel much better…"

Such a display of sisterly love sent Miku into overdrive and she began thrashing in the twin's grip

"OhmygodthesetwoaresooooocuteIjustwanttobringthemhomeandhugthemandkissthemandreadthemstoriesand…"

"Alert! Both Yamai Sisters cannot contain such madness for long!"

"We'll hold her and long as we can! Get the rescue targets to safety! No mere mortal can hope to withstand her affections!"

Both sisters were being tossed around to the point they were forced to lift Miku into the air to try and limit her leverage. The problem was this mean they were now flying…

In front of two civilians who weren't supposed to know about spirits….

" _What the hell are you two thinking?!"_

"Ah! We have become tangible in their mortal realm!"

"Exposed. Commander what is the operating procedure for being compromised like this in front of civilians?! How to we handle this?"

" _Ack! Crap! I don't know offhand…"_

They had been so good about going undetected by civilians they hadn't been forced to use such measures so she couldn't remember them!

In her usual way Natsumi instantly assumed the worst "Are we going to have to "deal" with them?!"

"Deal? Are we going to negotiate?" Tohka asked innocently

"No _deal_! As in  MURDER them! Ahhhh! We're going to have to shoot them, cut up the bodies, and dump them in a pit full of quicklime! We'll all swear to never speak of it again on the roadside and they'll be forgotten for years until one of them secretly turns out to still be alive and begins to hunt us down with a knife while wearing a raincoat!"

Shido sweatdropped "Natsumi…"

"Oh! Or we'll all turn on each other after one of us gets set up for a bad drug deal and needs something to get the DA to not give us life in prison!"

"Natsumi you're being…"

"I can't go to prison forever! I'll tell you anything you want to hear!"

With this going on Rom and Ram began whispering to each other about their new acquaintances

"So Rom what do you think so far? Odd little group aren't they?"

"It's like... they're a bunch of islands of insanity in a rolling sea of stupidity…"

"That's oddly harsh and specific for you Rom."

"I read it...in one of of big sister's books...I've been wanting to work it into a conversation until now…"

"Well I can't say it's not true, I'm half convinced the purple one wants to eat my hat for some reason!" Ram glanced upward at the spirit who was still poking her hat with a odd look on her face

"Muffin..." Tohka cooed with each poke and sparkling eyes

" _Here we go, Standard produce in these type of situations is to bring in subjects to nearest facility and work out a deal in exchange for a non disclosure contract"_ said Reine who finally found the protocol for dealing with exposure of the existence of spirits to small numbers of civilians (Less than five according to the manual)

' _Ok so bring them in and try to convince them not to talk…"_ Shido mentally prepared himself and put on a friendly smile as he address the two

"Um, listen you two, I need you to come with me after this is all over…"

Kaguya creeped up behind Shido with a menacingly evil grin "Yeah, he needs you to come back to his van of ill repute with the tinted windows of darkness!"

Shido chocked as the other Yamai mirrored the act "Creeper. Yes, the one where he keeps all the candy!"

Tohka bounced up and down with joy "Shido-kun has a whole van full of candy?!"

"No I don't Tohka and please you two don't say such things!"

"Why should we follow you? I don't like following orders!" defied the girl in pink

"Me neither!" mirrored her sister playfully

Over the intercom came Reine _"Perhaps someone else should try to convince them? An appeal to their more childish desires may work?"_

"We have video games!" offered Kaguya

"And yummy foods!" added Tohka

"Score! Ok we'll come with you guys!"

"If Ram goes Rom goes too!"

Shido blanched at how easy that was _'I'm not sure if my failures to get small children to follow me to strange places is something I should be ashamed or proud of!'_

"So your names are Rom and Ram?" Tohka asked

The one in pink spoke "I'm Ram! This is my sister Rom!"

Blue followed "I'm Rom! I'm Ram's sister!"

"Muuu~ Why were the two of here alone? Where is your mommy and daddy?"

"We don't…"

Ram elbowed her sister "...We don't know if we have any right ROM?"

"Oh! Ri-Right! We don't know…"

"You see me and Rom just woke up in this place after falling from really high up! We know our names, that we're sisters, and that I'm the cool one but not much else!"

"We have armnisa…"

"AMnesia Rom!"

"Right!"

A series of gasps spread through Shido and the spirits "You two don't remember anything?" he asked

The girl in blue shook her head "Nope, just a reaaaaaaaally long fall…"

' _Could that have been when Origami Hit them? No, Natsumi cushioned their fall so what else could have happened? Did Yoshino land in the mall and knock these two off of something with her powers while fighting DEM? Maybe they've seen her?'_ Shido gave the two a close look as he thought over these things.

Meanwhile Kaguya gazed at all the spirits and their exposed angels and dresses and proclaimed "That certainly explains why you aren't intimidated by our glorious divine forms and tools of fate!"

"Why? Is this something me and Rom should be impressed by?"

"Is this situation strange...?"

"Hey hey! Show proper respect to the might of winds of destruction!"

"Agree. Behold our majesty and tremble!"

Both orange haired twins struck a magnificent pose right out an anime together hoping to impress the two. Shido swore he saw two main characters doing the same stance on Yoshino's shows earlier!

"...You two do kinda look cool...I guess..."

"Eh, I'd rate you a six out of ten on the costume design" Ram shrugged "Bonus points though for actually having some interesting weapons, I'm sick of seeing nothing but idiots swinging giant swords around!"

"..."

"..."

"Pssst!-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

"Natsumi you don't have to laugh so hard you know…"

"-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

"Muu~ Kaguya and Yuzuru look like a balloon after you let all the air out!"

"-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

"Jeez I thought some of my music critics were unduly harsh…"

-"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

Ram's appraisal of the twins sent them to the ground in shock; both looked like someone who just celebrated their 35th birthday only to realize they were no longer as cool as they were in their youth

"Lament. We are merely above average...?!"

"We once commanded the very forces of earth itself to summon winds that could rip a mere mortal in half! How can we not impress children now?!"

"Hey! I said at least your weapons are cool! Don't mope like that! Moping is for losers and protagonists who need something to replace their total lack of character building or personality!" offered Ram

This did the trick as both Kaguya and Yuzuru rose to their feet and played it off "R-Right! No epic warrior has every done anything by feeling sorry about themselves!"

"Statement. Such a trivial matter would never drag us down-

"-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"-Although both Yuzuru and Kaguya would like it if Natsumi would stop laughing now…"

"I hate to interrupt but I'm still injured down here…"

Shido slapped his forehead and ran over to the one forgotten by everyone when Rom and Ram showed up "Origami are you ok!?"

"I few cuts and bruises but my wounds are not fatal, I'm sorry I was unable to buy everyone more time"

"Think nothing of it! Let's make sure you're ok!" Shido bent down and confirmed Origami had been right upon first glance; her body looked relatively fine but it still worried Shido to have her running around injured "Nothing broken but these cuts look bad, we need to treat these right away"

"Hey look Rom! Another one!" Ram walked over with her sister upon noticing this new girl that had appeared "Cool dress thing! Odd...Why do I get the feeling she'd look good in a red trench coat…?"

"Ram she looks hurt! We should help her!"

As much as Ram hated it when Rom got all mushy like this she could see this girl was obviously hurt and went into her bag for something to help "Ok hold on….Let see...Powerbomb...Lon Lon Milk (Saving that for any healing and cookie emergencies)...Fire Flower...Crystal Coconut...Deku Nut ...hmmmm...maybe a green herb will do?" Ram asked her sister

"But what if we find a yellow herb later in the level?"

"Aren't those for poison?"

"Ram those were blue and they stopped doing that after three…"

"Meh,I never really remembered those first few. They were seriously overrated"

"That's because you hated the limited inventory space and ink ribbon system...also does this mean you like the later ones more?"

"Careful Rom! Let's not say anything in public you can't take back!" Ram actually covered Rom's mouth as if she was saying something scandalous "Four was the best, Five was ok, and I just try to pretend Six never existed!"

"Just like the fanbase…" Rom moaned

"Anyway I'll pop a healing spray for this since apparently these guys don't have a dedicated healer!"

Ram ignored the confused looks of all those who had witnessed the bizarre conversation and produced a small silver spray bottle with a green cross on the side from her bag. As soon as Origami was dosed with it's contents all her wounds instantly sealed!

"Wow! What on earth was that stuff!?" Shido looked over the freshly healed Origami and found not a trace of a scratch, it was like she was using Kotori's angel she had healed so quickly!

Tohka picked up the can after Ram discarded it nearby "Life Safe, A product of the Umbrella Corporation"

"It should instantly heal all wounds! However side effects of First Aid Spray may include a sudden desire to collect random puzzle parts, becoming paranoid about being attacked by dogs through windows, and fighting against people with incredibly stupid plans for world domination!" warned Ram with a grin

' _Where on earth did a amnesiac find something like that?!'_ wondered Shido before realizing _'Wait! What was with that list of side effects?!'_

"Um thanks you two…" said Origami with a blush

She still wasn't the best when it came to interacting with people even after she was sealed but at the very least she was trying.

"Y-Your welcome…"

"Hey I saw the one who brought the spray Rom! I accept your gratitude miss…?"

"Oh that's right we got your names but we never told you ours" realized Shido

Truthfully he wasn't sure telling civilians the spirit's names was a good idea for security reasons but these two seemed harmless enough and Kotori would sort everything out later so he and the girls tried to give a friendly greeting only to have it fall apart

"Name's Shido"

"My name is Origami, I am Shido's girlfriend"

"I am Tohka and I'm Shido's girlfriend! Not her!"

"We are the daughters of nature and mistresses of the gale force winds Kaguya and Yuzuru!"

"Addition. Shido is our shared property"

"You can call me Natsumi and Shido is my toy!"

"You probably would recognize me if you had your memories but I'm the famous idol Miku! Darling Shido is going to be my husband someday! I'd be fine if the others wanted to be with us too…"

By the end of the girls' introductions each was staring at the others while Ram and Rom looked on in confusion

"Ram...Did we end up in that game about collecting girls to fight monsters...?"

"That's pocket monstrosities Rom and you collect boy and girl monsters, not regular girls"

"No...I mean the game with the girls who look like ships... they fight other girls who look like monster ships...for some reason buckets are really important in it" Rom could remember the countless times when Vert had tried to stuff them in armor plated sailor suits with cannons attached to cosplay as members of the something division six from that game.

" _In your normal forms you cosplay as one set and while transformed you can go as the other!"_ she had said while dragging both towards her room

"Do you collect girls to fight for you Mr. Shido person?" asked Rom

"Um...well...you see…" Shido hesitated to explain his relationship with the spirits

" _I'm pretty sure with his next booster pack big brother is going to unlock a super-mega-ultra-rare-foil spirit to add to his "collection" of spirits!"_

"First Kaguya and Yuzuru and now you too Kotori?! Why is everyone out to ruin my image?!"

" _If you're worried about that stop shouting into your ear in front of these girls and remember why we're here! Yoshino is still out there! While you've been finding more girls to bring to your room and do impure things to her signs have stopped!"_

"Stopped?! Is she ok?!"

" _There were reports of rapid temperature changes headed in your direction but they stopped not long ago. I was hoping this meant Yoshino was close by but if she's not there by now…"_

"Hold on a second!" Shido yelled before turning to Rom and Ram "Have you two seen a young girl with blue hair and a rabbit puppet on her hand by any chance?"

Rom looked at her sister who shook her head before answering "Not really… Although me and sister were being attacked by those robot things so we might not of seen her during the fighting..."

"Wait! You were attacked by these things!?" Shido asked while pointing at a nearby Bandersnatch that Tohka had cut in half

Ram walked over and kicked the bot "Yeah these things showed up and tried to hurt us but we're both too cool for that!"

"Yeah! Me and Ram handled them like big girls!"

" _What the hell is going on with DEM?! First they miss these two during the evacuation then their IFF system marks them as targets?! What idiot set up this Op.?!"_

Before Shido could ask how they managed to survive being attacked by DEM's automated killing machines there was another crash from the ceiling from which descended the same blond wizard that had sent Origami falling earlier "Finally found you! It takes far too long to hunt you down individually so I'm kind of glad I found you all together like this" spoke the wizard with mild amusement

"Mathers…" Shido hissed while the girls prepared themselves

Around the wizard a small detachment of other DEM wizards appeared as support; each one was fully equipped for combat and Mathers still held in her hands the gaint anti-spirit cannon DEM had prototyped "What's wrong? You lot don't seem happy to see me? Are you still looking for Hermit's body?"

"Why the hell did you choose her! You could have attacked any of us and you chose Yoshino?!"

"Sadly this thing has a long response time and Hermit has above average armor so from a purely statistical standpoint she was an excellent point of data for us"

"You're sick!"

"What you say matters little here, I'm going to-"

"Hey who's this chick?!"

"Ram! I think she's a bad guy!" said Rom as both twins made their presence known to the wizards

"Hey you! Old lady with the big gun! Are you the one in charge of these dumb robot things?!" Ram pointed at Ellen

"Who the hell are you calling old you little brat?!"

"You _Grandma!_ "

"Grrr! Who do you think you are!?"

"I'm someone who's still mad about being attacked by these robots!"

"By the Bandersnatch? Ugh...Did someone alter the Friend or Foe protocols again?!" Maters yelled at her subordinates who each looked away in embarrassment "I don't care if a few kids get killed but our targets are the spirits! We can't afford to be wasting operation time!"

"So then you ARE in charge of all these weird flying people and deathbots!"

"It won't matter much when you're dead to cover up our tracks but I am Ellen Mathers: the world's strongest wizard and soldier of Deus Ex Machina industries" Ellen answered if only to stroke her own ego

Ram's head bobed to the side in thought "Soldier? So you're not the boss?"

"So that makes her an underling..." Rom's eyes suddenly lit up and she cheered to her sister "Ram! We found a new miss Underling!"

"What the hell did you call me?!"

"What?" Ram asked mockingly "It's right! You're an underling! You're Miss Underling to us!"

"Underling! Underling! Underling!" cheered Rom

"You little assho-"

"Ha! Sounds like these two found a weak point on Miss Underling's ego!" jeered Natsumi joining in on the gag. Ever since Mathers had nearly killed her Natsumi had a particular distaste for the wizard and found the face of pure rage she was making a thing of beauty.

It didn't take the other spirit's long to join in on the torement of their most hated foe

"Re-branding. Calling her an underling is technically correct as she is the subordinate of another"

"Correct my sister! Plus it appears to fill her with an unholy blood rage! I like it!"

"My my, I didn't expect an enemy like her to have such a fragile ego!"

"Shido doesn't calling her an underling really make her seem not as scary?"

"I guess Tohka…(Although I really don't think it makes her any less dangerous)"

"I haven't seen her this mad since I managed to wound her outside of DEM japan HQ"

Ram took out her staff and banged it on the ground twice "Ok, calling a vote! Who wants to call her Miss underling from now on?"

"Ram wouldn't it be Miss Underling 2?" Rom whispered

"Amnesia Rom!" she whispered back

"Right…"

"That's it! Everyone dies!" Mathers screamed and raised her cannon directly at the group

"Tohka get Rom and Ram out of here and-" before Shido could stop yelling the two girls actually moved forward now with both their staffs out!

"Rom! It's time to prove who the heroines of this game are!"

"Boss fight time!" Rom sang

"What the hell are you two little abominations thinking?!"

"Ram! Rom! Get back! She's a very dangerous person!" Shido couldn't imagine what these two small girls were planning to do! Mathers once fought and defeated a unsealed spirit, normal people couldn't do anything to her!

A frantic Kotori came over the line as the screens on the ship's bridge all lit up " _Shido! We're detecting something coming from those two! It's some type of energy but we've never seen anything exactly like it before! They aren't normal girls!"_

This news shocked Shido and the rest who watched as the (other) twins' bodies began to glow. Sure enough it felt like the sensation of a spirit charging up but Tohka and the others could tell something was "off" about it. It was energy but none of them could tell what type, it felt almost alien to them.

"T-The hell?! None of the scanners are picking up any mana from these two!? What the hell are they!?" Mathers watched the two children clearly charge up with some unknown power but every sensor designed to detect spirits on her HUD was coming up empty!

"You're boned now miss underling! Me and Rom's Exe. bar is right at "butt kicking!" levels!"

"Ram! Have my power!" With that Rom kissed her sister on the forehead focusing all the power between the two into Ram who held up her staff like a baseball bat "Rom&Ram Modified: E-Force Arctic Blast!" a hyper condensed ball of super cold air was launched from her swing directly at Mathers

With the heavy cannon weighing her down there was no time to dodge but a powerful realizer field covered the wizard that could easily block such a small attac-

 **9999!**

"Impossible!" Mathers watched as the attack ripped through her field like paper and exploded in her face sending her flying and flash freezing the entire mall lobby.

"Welcome to new game plus meany!"

"That seemed really easy for a boss fight..."

"Yeah, we're awesome!" Ram smiled with glee at her easy victory but found something off with that damage number "By the way did you forget to turn off the damage limit breaker again Rom?"

"I wanted this to be somewhat fair…we just took out the first boss in one hit..."

"Forget that noise! Bring on the OPness! We didn't grind levels for 42 hours just to make things "fair" for our enemies!"

"Adeptus 1?!" one wizard screamed before looking at the twins fearfully "They took her out in one hit!"

Apparently seeing their leader blasted away shattered the nerve of her subordinates, all of whom broke out in panic!

"Is that a new spirit?!"

"All this ice! Could it be...The Hermit?!"

"The new cannon! Did it do this to the Hermit!?"

"I thought it was designed to destroy spirits, not make more of them!"

"Not only did she split, she seems to have gotten even stronger in this form!"

"The warped energy readings! We knew the weapon was a prototype but these side effects are too much!"

"Command we're recovering an injured Adeptus 1, halt any more testing of the new weapon system! Something has happened! Hermit's reaction was not as expected! I repeat: Do not use the new weapon system!"

"Everyone fall back!"

With two wizards carrying an unconscious Mathers the DEM squad flew out through the ceiling leaving Rom and Ram along with Shido and the spirits.

Ram turned to face them with a giant grin on her face "Not bad huh?"

"..."

"...Wait...Why are you all looking at us like that?"

The faces Shido and the spirit's made towards Rom and Ram made both girls think they must have looked like ghosts to them. They looked back and forth in disbelief at both twins, the frozen lobby, and each other with pale faces and wide eyes. Natsumi in particular looked caught between confusion and horror and kept muttering to herself something that couldn't be made out by the others.

Tohka was the first to speak, her eyes glued to Rom and Ram's accessories "Those ears...that eyepatch...this ice..."

"Similar markings to her angel" Origami could clearly be seen taking out her phone and holding it up to compare the photo that was on the screen to the twins "Not a perfect match physically but considering both's perssonalities and that angel, well..." Origami couldn't finish her sentence and looked down towards the floor.

Miku had her hand to her lips and looked horribly frightened and conflicted "Yoshino-san...will she...are they...is she ok?" she muttered while biting her nail.

Kaguya and Yuzuru then joined in after exchanging a look of knowing between the two.

Yuzuru began "Repeat. Sister do you think that Yoshino has-"

"-Just like our own?!" Kaguya finished

Finally Shido took a few steps forward and barely managed to blurt out at Rom and Ram

"Y-Yoshino?!"

* * *

Author Note: Well here you go, I know people like this story so I pushed this one out a little fast. I'll be editing it as I find mistakes. Please feel free to leave a review if you like this story since I love reading them! Also before anyone says anything I know RE is a multi platform title and not exclusive to Lowee. I just really wanted to drop some references to RE 4.


	6. Mods Enabled

**Nep A Live**

 **Chapter 5: Mods Enabled**

* * *

" _I'm sorry! I didn't know!" cried the older girl as she began to break down in the face of her friend's confession in the forest clearing_

 _In the eyes of the younger girl such a thing was no excuse for what she had done "You think I care?! Do you really think that even if you didn't mean it I can just forgive what you did to me!?"_

" _No! Stop! I swear I never meant…"_

" _I DON'T CARE IF YOU MEANT IT!"_

 _The weight of the brunette's words crashed into her friend sending her to her knees._

" _Even if you didn't mean it that doesn't mean it didn't hurt! You manipulated me; toyed with me like a puppet! Do you even know how many nights the nightmares have kept me up till dawn?!" the screaming stopped as her tone dropped to that of a tepid whisper "-Do you even know how often I've wanted to end it all just to escape the memories…?"_

" _Suicide?! No! Just-Just talk to me! Tell me what I can do to make this right!" came the desperate plea of the older girl, carrying a tone of hopelessness that was only seemed to annoy the one she had harmed._

" _You...You want to know what you can do for me?" her friend hissed "Disappear...never show your face to me every again"_

 _When she turned to leave the younger of the two said, with her back turned to her broken friend "I hate you...I wish you were dead…"_

 _Suddenly the trees around the two exploded as-_

" **BLANC!"**

* * *

"Ugh! Mina? What is it? I'm in the middle of my story here!" said Blanc as she looked up from her computer at the annoyed Oracle that was now standing in her office. "I can't stop for too long; I'm really feeling creative tonight and when I'm on a roll I really write some golden stuff! I need to take advantage of it while I can!"

"I know that but you can't afford to ignore the real word in exchange for your art" said Mina with a soft sigh while adjusting her glasses

This puzzled Blanc. What could she have forgotten? After she came home and explained what had happened to Rom and Ram to Mina she buried herself in paperwork to take her mind off of the situation until dinner. After a quiet meal with Yoshino she had retreated to her study to listen to a little music and work on her writing. With all her work done and the twins located in another dimension until Nepgear could figure out how to get them back there really shouldn't have been anything for her to neglect.

"Is this about me leaving something out after dinner or did I forget a form in the earlier paperwork?"

Mina slammed her hands down onto Blanc's desk "This is about the girl from another dimension who is in the twins' room right now crying!"

"Oh yeah Yosh-whatever; she shouldn't be staying too long so don't worry about it" stated Blanc camly

Evidently this was not what Mina wanted to hear…

"It's Yoshino! Also, regardless of how she got her or when she is leaving that girl is our responsibility! You never said a single word to her the entire time she's been here even when she's obviously upset!" scolded the Oracle; looking just as red as her hat

"What do you want me to do?! I barely know her!" explained Blanc defensively

"A child is in our care so it is our duty to make her feel at home! She's clearly scared out of her mind of being stranded in a world she doesn't know! You should go and comfort her!"

All of Mina's yelling was giving Blanc a headache so she just decided to give in "Ok! Ok! But how do I do that?"

With a hand to her forehead Mina sighed again "After so long with the twins you still don't understand how to properly care for children…"

"Well I was reading a book about that...until Ram set it on fire"

The Oracles eyes lit up "That's it! How about you go and read her a bedtime story!" she suggested

Blanc loved books and reading the poor dear a story from the library might help take her mind off of her being trapped in their world; it made perfect sense!

Much to Mina's surprise Blanc actually seemed excited by the idea "Hmmm. Maybe I can read her one of my newer books!"

"That could...be...nice...I guess..."

"Aw come on! They aren't THAT bad!"

"Ummm…"

Blanc took one of the novels she had printed and held it up "This one is about a hero who wakes up with no memories and realizes she looks exactly like the missing Dark Queen who subjugated the land; she takes up a disguise and magic sword to become the hero of a resistance to the very government she helped create!" she enthused before stating "The main bad guy turning out to be a good guy is very big right now and I came up with the story idea years ago, I was ahead of the curve on that!"

"How about a fairy tale instead? That might be a bit heavy for her before bed" Mina suggested while handing over one of the more popular Lowee fairytales called the _Princess and the Plumber_

"Fine...Give it here…"

Blanc took both books and walked out of her office with Mina in tow, all the while thinking that an older girl like Yoshino might be a bit too mature for a kids tale like the one Mina suggested. Perhaps, she wondered, one of her more lighthearted works might be a better match?

' _Oh who am I kidding...No one around here appreciates my work!'_ a disgruntled Blanc thought as she looked the novel in her hands and remembered the other 40K copies that had gone unsold downstairs.

' _Goddamn tasteless assholes...'_

* * *

When she arrived at the twin's room Blanc was still somewhat fuming over her book sales, however the sound of Yoshino clearly crying through the door gave her pause. Obviously she suspected the strange girl might have been upset after being dropped into a unknown world with no one but her puppet but Blanc was surprised at just how loudly Yoshino was bawling her eyes out. Even for Rom this was an impressive display of sobbing volume wise; Blanc could damn near feel the floor vibrate underneath her and did she actually feel it get colder the harder she cried?!

Mina gentle opened the door a crack and gestured to her young charge to go in "Remember Blanc, make her feel welcome and safe"

"I know, I know"

Blanc gave mina a grumbled response as she opened the door to see…

"Huh!? That book!"

"Wheaaaah!" Yoshino gave a startled yelp and did her best to hide the book back where she found in under the covers of Ram's bed. Blanc had walked in on a Yoshino wrapped in Rom's blanket while crying her eyes out reading the novel Ram had recovered the vault key for the display from.

' _So Ram just left it in here huh? Even when she breaks the rules she could at least clean up after herself!'_

That book was the first Blanc had ever written, a drama about girl plagued by nightmares of having all her friends snatched away from horrible shadow hands and how she rose up to fight them only to find it was her best friend trying to make sure she never had any other friends than her. It was terrible, the punctuation was bad, the vocabulary was very limited, and the main character was a shameless self insert but somehow...Yoshino actually seemed to like it!

' _Impossible, even I know that book was a mistake and half the people I showed it to thought it was a parody!'_ In Blanc's mind it seemed inconceivable that anyone could enjoy that literary equivalent of a toxic waste dump even in the face of what she had seen.

This had to be a mistake!

"Yoshino was it?" Blanc asked the cowering girl

" **Yup, and Yoshinon"** came the squeak of her puppet in response while she merely nodded with half her face hidden behind the blanket she held up with her free hand

' _Yeesh! She's hiding just like Rom'_ Blanc observed

"Yoshino, were you...reading that book just now?" Blanc had paused to consider her words; she had been tempted to say "enjoying" but that seemed like hoping for too much on her part

"Um, I'm sorry…" Yoshino quietly answered "I know I shouldn't of been rude and looked through your sisters' stuff but I found it under the pillow when I tried to go to sleep and just started reading it. I won't do it again"

As if channeling all the tsun of Noire Blanc blushed, turned to the side, and fidgeted with her hands while asking "It's fine but...did you enjoy that book by any chance?"

All she was missing was a "It's not like I care Baka!" and the Tsun would have been complete!

"Well um...it was kind of hard to understand...but it was really beautiful. That part when she was trapped by the ghost hands with all her new friends and she tried to save them by throwing herself off the building was what made me cry...she was willing to kill herself to end the curse and save them...that was so sad…"

From her hiding place behind the door's keyhole Mina could see Blanc choke up and try to maintain her composure.

' _Someone just called Lady Blanc's first novel beautiful...oh dear, I don't think her heart knows how to handle this'_

"So you actually liked it?" asked a who was Blanc looking ready to explode with joy yet held back out of pride

Jumping with joy over such a light compliment; she couldn't act so easy to please!

"Y-Yes...it was a very good book...I liked it more than the ones back home…"

Back in her world Yoshino didn't read much since most of what was around was magazines or a few romance novels Kotori kept around.

" **All her friends like different books and since Yoshino doesn't want to intrude by asking for some of her own she always gets stuck borrowing ones she doesn't really like"** the girl's puppet explained

"And (nervous cough) what type does Yoshino like?"

" **Yoshino is a sucker for drama mixed with a bit of naughty racey bits!"**

Steam seemed to shoot out of Yoshino's ears as she yelled "Yoshinon! Dooon't saaay thaat!" while wobbling back and forth like Neptune did when someone mentioned naughty things around her.

" **What? It's true"** Yoshinon stated innocently **"You spend almost all day watching soap operas in front of the TV"**

Blanc kept feigning disinterest and failing "So Yoshino likes dramas then? Would she like to read more books like that? Lowee prides itself on having a well stocked library of all sorts of genres. I'm sure we have lots more she would like"

' _I see that Lady Blanc doesn't want to admit she wrote that book yet. Maybe she wants Yoshino's honest opinion on a few more of her novels without the taint of her knowing who wrote them?'_ pondered an amused Mina

As she thought about that she also reflected upon the sheer luck of Blanc coming into contact with a small girl who who loved soap operas and dramas. While Blanc had much better success with her more light hearted novels she adored the drama genre and wrote these massive stories she poured all her heart into even if they sold very poorly. Truly this may have been a match made in heaven.

" **Does Lady Blanc also like those type of stories?"**

"Dramatic and emotional pieces with naughty parts thrown in? You bet!" enthused Blanc loudly

" **Oh thank god! Someone who has the same tastes as Yoshino! Finally! No offense to any of her friends but they just don't appreciate a good drama like her!"** cheered Yoshinon

"How so?"

" **Well Tohka will watch them with us but she's a little too simple to follow them, Kaguya and Yuzuru prefer things with giant robots fighting giant monsters, Kotori prefers more lighthearted romance stories, Shido is a boy so it's awkward to make him watch with her, Natsumi prefers shows that are called "The world's** _ **blankest**_ _ **blank**_ **", and Miku always ends up crushing Yoshino's face into her jugs and do you have any idea how hard it is to watch an emotional story with someone who can hypnotize you by crying?!"**

"...I have to...keep covering my ears...I don't want to have that happen again…" said Yoshino who sounded a little "odd" to Blanc all of a sudden

Her tone had changed slightly upon mentioning this Miku girl and she sounded downright fearful upon mentioning her cries and their apparent brainwashing powers.

' _Did she say again?'_ wondered Blanc

"She hypnotized you before?"

Yoshino yelped in surprise when Blanc asked that, clearly she hadn't meant to mention that little detail. She began to mutter incoherently things along the line of "It's nothing!" and "I didn't mean anything by it!" until her puppet intervened to explain to Blanc what was going on.

" **Just ignore her, Yoshino just feels guilty about holding a grudge and wanting to punch Miku in the face over that still"**

"Yoshinon!" screeched Yoshino in horror

"Ok, who is this Miku girl?" asked Blanc, legitimately curious now

" **You know that girl with yellow hair and the giant melons back at that Nepgear girl's lab? Miku is like our world's version of her. Same bouncing boobs, slightly different hair color, and if what we saw of her is really how she acts all the time; same personality"**

Yoshino and Yoshinon hadn't had much time around Vert but after seeing her fawn all over that girl who looked like a pink haired Shidori it was easy to compare the two even with that small sample of her personality.

Ok now Blanc was really curious "So let me get this straight. There's a girl who's almost an exact copy of Vert in your world, someone who has no concept of personal space, a raging little sister fetish, and constantly shoves her breasts into every situation?"

" **That's Miku to a T"**

"And Yoshino wants to punch her?"

" **In the face!"**

Yoshino could see Blanc's face contort strangely as if she was suppressing an intense emotion and was scared that Yoshinon's words had upset her somehow.

"May I ask why?" Blanc barely managed to force out "What lead to this?"

"It's nothing! I swear!" Yoshino denied

Sadly Yoshinon was more than happy to answer that **"You see Miku once had the power to hypnotize people and make them obey every command she gave. When Shido tried to take that power from her Miku threw a giant tantrum and brainwashed everyone in town to try and kill him including Yoshino. As if making her try and openly murder someone she loved wasn't bad enough Miku decided to force Yoshino to dress up as a maid and call her Big Sis the entire time she was hypnotized. If she hadn't lost control Miku would have probably kept Yoshino and her friends as her brainwashed and loving little sisters for good! After she learned her lesson Miku** _ **eventually**_ **got around to saying she was sorry for almost turning her into a murder and mind slave a full month later. Yoshino is a sensitive girl who hates to see her friends hurt so what Miku did to her pissed her off more royally than she's willing to admit to herself despite the apology. Since then, even though she's friends with Miku now, Yoshino has secretly held it against her and barely suppressed a desire to beat Miku to a bloody pulp every time she sees her"**

Just when Blanc thought Yoshinon was done it decided to drop one more little comment **"It's funny, even during those few minutes we met her that Vert gave Yoshino the same feeling. Is it normal to want to hit her every time she jiggles her boobs?"**

Yoshino turned red faced and began to choke up in the awkward silence that followed Yoshinon's admission

"Stareeeeeeeeeeeee….."

"I...I...I…" stuttered a stunned Yoshino; she had never meant for anyone to find out about that!

Yoshinon kept telling her to go to Shido or Kotori and explain it to them but she never wanted anyone to find out she would be so petty as to keep a grudge with someone who said they were sorry!

As if letting that little secret out wasn't enough for Yoshino in the next moment she found herself wrapped in a crushing bearhug by Blanc!

"Perfect! You're perfect!" gushed the brown haired CPU

"Waaa?! Miss Blanc! You're crushing me!"

"Finally! Someone who gets me!"

" **Ugh! She's strong!"** commented Yoshinon in a strained voice.

Even if Blanc had a body that allowed her to cosplay as a child character only a fool would underestimate her strength; the CPU of Lowee was packed full of raw power meant to shatter the defenses of any foe. Yoshino's body was being lovingly crushed by the same arms that could unleash a blow capable of dropping a unsealed Tohka to her knees.

"Someone who likes my books! Someone who wants to punch Vert in the face! I've found my soulmate!"

"S-S-Soulmate?!"

" **This is just like what happened with Natsumi! Why do you have this effect of people Yoshino?! Worse, why does Shido seem to be immune to it!?"**

"I don't know! Please let go miss Blanc!"

Blanc backed off and tried to regain her composure; she adjusted her hat, cleared her throat, and adopted her usual dignified pose.

"Sorry about that. It's just so _rare_ I meet anyone of any intelligence around here!" she excused casually

' _Why do I get the feeling the other CPU's would take offense to that?'_ thought Mina who could only imagine their reactions

"Intelligence?!" asked a flustered Yoshino who hadn't been expecting the compliment "I don't...I mean...I'm not that smart!"

"Smart enough to hate the right people" Blanc replied with a smirk

"I don't hate Miku! I'm just...still a little mad at her...that's all…"

" **Yoshino's really ashamed by that fact. Truthfully she can be quite the vengeful little ball of rage when someone really does something that goes too far in her eyes. She just locked that part of her away a long time ago"**

He wasn't wrong either. Long before Shido ever met Yoshino and sealed her the little spirit of ice had a rather _explosive_ temper that only the first few AST squads had likely seen. It was a shameful secret Yoshino made sure to keep from everyone she knew; she could only imagine what Shido might think of her if he ever found out about what used to happen when she lost control. Thankfully she had managed to get it under control with Yoshinon's help but whenever he was gone for too long that part of her started to come back out.

On her head Blanc raised an eyebrow "So Yoshino has a bit of an _anger_ problem as it were?" she asked with much surprise.

It was hard to imagine this little Rom clone could be a ticking time bomb of rage waiting to go off but considering it was Blanc asking that question...well she was living proof that such appearances can be deceiving…

" **Yup! Her fuse is much longer now but if someone ever actually manages to push her far enough Yoshino's primed to go nuclear! Miku is just the one who's come closest to pushing her over the edge. I'm hoping Yoshino manages to be true to herself and admit how pissed off she still is at her before she snaps and flash freezes her boobs off!"**

' _Ok note to self: Next time Thunder Tits pisses you the hell off threaten to give her frostbite so bad her boobs fall off'_

With that idea stored away for later Blanc sat down and cozied up to Yoshino in a comforting manner usually only reserved for the twins. In such a short time Yoshino had undergone a complete transformation in Blanc's eyes; she appreciated her books, had a natural dislike of Vert-like people, and even embraced some of Blanc's more _antisocial_ tendencies in the past. It was like Blanc had been gifted a new little sister. It wasn't as if she hated Rom or Ram and still loved them to death; it was just like Yoshino was the best part of both girls and Blanc herself rolled into one. She could never replace those two but it didn't mean she couldn't try and take care of her like a little sister and steer her in the right direction...right?

"You know Yoshino your puppet might be right; it's not good to deny who you are. If Ve-Miku did something to upset you it would be best to honest with her about it" lectured Blanc in full "big sis" mode that usually only Rom or Ram got to see

"Eh...Well...I really shouldn't…"

" **Yoshino only wants to be a good little girl and good little girls don't hold grudges"**

"That's right! Miku said she was sorry...so I have to...forgive her…"

"It's not a good thing to hold in your anger too much either; if you really get mad at people you should let it out!" encouraged Blanc much to Yoshino's horror

"Whaa…? I can't!"

" **C'mon' Yoshino! Maybe Blanc is right! If you ever want to become more assertive you need to remember how to get mean!"**

"Trust me Yoshino! I'll show you how to really let loose!" assured Blanc; a certified expert in venting explosive anger; with a comforting hand on Yoshino's shoulder

From her hiding spot Mina was getting worried _'It seems like Lady Blanc intends to help her deal with, or rather, encourage this girl to release her anger onto this Vert-like girl. Oh dear, just because she has a problem with Lady Greenheart doesn't mean it's right of Blanc to mold Yoshino into someone like herself!'_

Blanc didn't really _hate_ Vert per say; she and her both just enjoyed tormenting each other in the way only friends could. Still it worried Mina that Blanc might be a bad influence on Yoshino and that her attempt to get the CPU to care for the spirit may have been a bad idea.

' _I must be over thinking things again. What's the worst that could happen anyway?'_

* * *

 _(Alongside Blanc Yoshino walks out of a strange portal leading back to her world wearing a green version of Blanc's outfit and is greeted by all her friends including Miku who runs over to her looking for a hug)_

 _Miku: Yoshino-san! You're home! Rom and Ram were sooooooo cute but I'm glad you're back!_

 _(Yoshino silently takes off Yoshinon and pulls out a mallet)_

 _Tohka: Oh! Nice hammer thing Yoshino! Did you get that from the other world? Huh? Did you get a haircut too?_

 _Miku: Yoshino-san looks adorable even with short hair! It matches that hat so well!_

 _(Yoshino raises a fist to the air and screams with a glowing red eye)_

 _Yoshino: Shut the hell up Jello Jugs!_

 _Miku:...Jello jugs? Ow!_

 _(Yoshino pounces on Miku and begins beating her with the mallet while uttering a unending stream of curse words)_

 _Miku: Yoshino?! OW! OW! Don't hit me! OW! Darling something's wrong with Yoshino!_

 _Yoshino: Scream for me you shithead!_

 _Blanc: Well, my work here is done_

 _(Blanc leaves with Ram and Rom while Yoshino continues to beat up Miku)_

* * *

' _In retrospect this may have been a terrible mistake…'_

While Mina was imagining how Yoshino's Blancification might look the real Yoshino was attempting to explain to Blanc why she shouldn't let the angry part of her out ever again.

"I can't do that! Spirits who get mad cause problems and Shido will get mad at me if I make trouble!"

"What do you mean by problems?" asked Blanc with confusion

" **Oh right…! We never told you guys about what happens to a spirit when they get upset. Well the long and short of it is their powers go completely nuts whenever a spirit lets their emotions go!"**

Blanc reflected on that "I detected some very low level ice magic when you were crying earlier. You mean your powers become uncontrollable?"

"Yes...kinda...I keep freezing things...even if I don't want to…" Yoshino shamefully admitted

" **Shido sealed away most of her powers to keep Yoshino from starting a new ice age every time she watches something sad on TV but it's a problem that never completely goes away"**

"Interesting….So the spirits have impressive power but their control is utter crap" said Blanc deep in thought

The CPU could definitely sense the power within Yoshino and knew it was strong but she didn't know exactly how it functioned or compared to her own. It was unlike the SP or Share Energy that fueled the CPUs and Makers; Yoshino's strange power seemed to be almost primordial and feral for Blanc could feel it lash out in tiny amounts whenever Yoshino was upset.

' _So this stuff doesn't heel even when she's completely sealed and continues to be a problem? I can sense she has power and potential but she just needs to get this wild mana of hers under control somehow'_

It seemed like such a utter, goddam, waste to let such a thing go unused in Blanc's mind. Surely there had to be a way to help Yoshino reign in her own powers? Blanc was looking forward to having Yoshino help her out around Lowee during her stay. The two of them could run quests together, train together, Blanc could read more of her books to Yoshino; she just needed to find a way to unlock Yoshino's true potential.

"Hey Mina!"

With a surprised stumble Mina fell into the room fearing her Lady knew she had been watching her through the keyhole the entire time.

"Yes Blanc?!"

"I know it's late but could you inspect Yoshino real quick?"

Mina shot her CPU a surprised look "Huh?"

* * *

Lowee Shareicite Chamber

Despite the late hour Mina agreed to inspect Yoshino and her magic beneath the light of Lowees Shareicite Crystal where she could more easily make out the finer nuances of the girl's inner magic. It didn't take the Oracle long to see just how out of balance the poor girl's powers were or to figure out she had been implanted by a foreign entity with something she could not control. Yoshino had mentioned a Phantom and how she and few other of the girls suspected she was the one giving people crystals to turn them into spirits but Mina was genuinely surprised by her initial few scans of the gem.

In order to get clear readings for her Oracle Blanc had kept Yoshino calm with a bit of idle small talk about her novels and writing career during the testing.

" **So you really wrote that book Yoshino liked?"**

"T-That's impressive...I could never do that…"

"Well I did mostly start off writing fanfiction. It's all about starting small and working your way up"

" **Was it good fanfiction or did you go the dark route of self insert OCs getting half the main cast to love them?"**

You could see the disgust on Blanc's face as she shuddered "Ugh! Please!" she yelled angrily "-I have goddam standards! Nothing ruins a story faster than a crappy OC!"

" **I hear ya! If me and Yoshino run into someone who is a shameless Kurumi re-color who has all the spirit's powers, is absolutely perfect, and OP as heck running around this story we're bailing on this fanfic!"**

 _ **(Neptune: Hey Bunny boy! Breaking the 4th wall in my job ya hear!? Get off my turf!)**_

"Huh?...D-D-Did anyone else just hear that just now?! Yoshinon? Miss Blanc?"

"I didn't hear anything Yoshino. Now then, I could show you my latest book if you want. It's some really high grade stuff about-"

Before Blanc could finish her pitch Mina finally finished up her examination.

"My goodness!" sighed Mina with her glowing hands focusing on Yoshino's chest were the crystal was buried "No wonder you can't control all this power! Besides being tainted by some unknown regret it's also under considerable pressure!" Taking her eyes off of Yoshino for a second Mina looked to the large crystal in the room and explained to her and Blanc "Despite it's tiny size I can sense enough raw power to be comparable to a CPU attached to their shares"

Mimicking her Oracle Blanc looked towards the crystal that gave her, Ram, and Rom their power and couldn't help but blache at the size difference "You mean to tell me that thing can put out enough power to match me without any shares to back it up? That's a hell of a lot of power for something so small! Is Yoshino really that strong?"

"Well, based on what she our visitor has described I'd say that, even unsealed, these spirits don't use all their power at once with this inversion state seeming to be them tapping into the crystal's full potential and being overwhelmed by it."

This honestly scared Mina. The dark feeling she was getting from the energy made it easy to see how using more than they could handle could drive a spirit totally insane. Her guess was that Yoshino's and the other girls' unsealed forms were basically just how much power they could safely use before they lost all control and began bowing to dark influence hidden inside each crystal. It was only a theory of hers but Mina believed at full inversion the spirits may have wielded a power beyond that of a standard CPU in their HDD form but at the cost of their own sanity and self control.

Whoever had put these things inside Yoshino and her friends must have known they'd never be able to handle this level of power so that begged the question; why do it? Why give those girls this much power in the first place? Mina had no clue and was ok with the idea that she would never find out; mostly she just wanted to make sure it couldn't hurt poor little Yoshino!

 _'Whoever this Phantom character is either knew about, and expected them to be sealed; or was willing to put these girl's lives at risk for her goals. I can only hope it's the former'_ thought Mina who couldn't believe anyone could be so reckless with the lives of small innocent young girls. Upon further reflection she recalled something similar had given birth to that miniature goddess Yellow Heart from the Ultradimension but if she remembered correctly even that had been an accident.

Having the same feelings as her Blanc asked the Oracle "Think there's anyway we can help?"

"A way to stabilize the power? It might be possible but…" Mina hesitated

Mina did have an idea but it seemed more than just risky; it seemed downright insane to try!

"But what?" challenged Blanc, unafraid of a little danger

Walking away from Yoshino Mina approached the Lowee crystal and began to explain how they could try and get Yoshino's power more under her control.

"Yoshino's body just can't handle that type of raw power, compound that with this strange energy's volatile nature and I can understand why they would want to seal that power away before it unleashed complete disaster"

' _It's terrifying to imagine this Shido boy has the power of 8 of these things inside him'_

"This power isn't natural to her body, it was put in there, so she simply can't control it as she is right now. The power isn't her's, she and the rest must in essence _borrow_ the power from the crystals put inside them"

" **So let me guess this straight, Yoshino's angel doesn't really belong to her?"** asked a surprised Yoshinon

Mina nodded "The crystal appears to allow you and your friends to manifest these "angels" and supplies most of the power to use them. From what I saw before your angel in this sealed state is running on a tiny amount of that power as well as what little natural power you have"

During the examination Mina had Yoshino push herself to summon her angel and use as much mana as she could to really test her limits and figure out how the strange magic worked. Even pushing herself the ice magic of her puppet mount had barely scratched Blanc's CPU form.

"By relying on this foreign power that's not natural to her body her control suffers greatly. The two powers more than likely conflict and run rampant as a result"

"Wow...you know a lot about magic...Miss Mina…" said Yoshino quietly in awe

Renie and the rest of Ratatoskr could only really speculate on the nature of magic when it came to the spirits but since Magic was a part of Lowee's tradition it had been shockingly easy for Mina to learn all she had in less than an hour. Yoshino could only imagine how much Kotori and whoever her bosses were would like to speak to the Oracle.

"Well I am Rom and Ram's magic tutor you know!" said Mina with pride "I know all about ice magic and with any luck I can help you control yours to prevent all these accidents"

"R-Really…? I might...stop freezing things by mistake…?"

It was an almost shocking idea to Yoshino; she had just resigned herself to coating a room with ice or making it rain every time she was sad. To be fully in control of her powers; could such a thing really happen?

' _I wonder...would Shido be impressed if I did? I wouldn't make any more messes for him to clean up...maybe I could even be strong enough to protect him like Tohka and everyone else...I'd stop being weak'_

"So how do we do this? You said there might be some difficulties?" asked Blanc impatiently

"There are a lot of fine mechanics to it but to put it simply we can help Yoshino by both strengthening her natural powers and body to better handle the power of the crystal and by helping to defuse some of the crystal's dark energy"

Blanc found at least the first part simple to understand "So Yoshino needs to level up in order to properly use her powers with blowing up randomly?"

"Yes, by strengthening her body she should be able to better handle the pressure of her own power. Plus if the ratio of her own power compared to this other power was more balanced the lapses in control shouldn't be an issue"

"Looks like we're going to power level tommorow Yoshino" Blanc told Yoshino

"P-Power l-level? What's that?" replied Yoshino nervously

Something about that sounded bad to her…

Blanc didn't answer her but instead asked Mina to explain about what she had meant about diffusing the crystal's energy. The Oracle sighed as she knew this would be the more experimental part of the plan. There was no doubt that the energy supplied by the crystal had a darker aspect about it than the share energy Blanc and the twins relied on. Mina could feel an intense regret from within it that was probably left over from whoever that power originally belonged to. This made the power violotle and overwhelming in large amounts, but there was a way to dilute it enough to make it manageable.

"I won't lie to you Lady Blanc, this is a dangerous idea not just for Yoshino but possibly yourself as well" Mina warned her

With one hand on the Lowee crystal she explained "My idea is to merge Yoshino's crystal with the Sharacite shared between you and your sisters. By itself the dark energy of that crystal is too much to handle but if mixed with the light energy of the shares-"

"-It'll be like taking a single drop of a poison and dumping it in a pool. Technically the water's poisoned but after being so diluted it's almost harmless" finished Blanc who understood the rough idea

That much dark energy getting flooded out with the power of the shares and split between four people? It's effect would be dropped to almost nothing.

"Yes, however this would require us to link Yoshino to the Lowee crystal"

"So?"

That may have been a bit too blunt on Blanc's part if Mina's response was any clue "Lady Blanc! We have no idea how a spirit could react to being linked to the crystal! Yoshino would technically be a CPU candidate of Lowee!"

" **Wait...Does that mean Yoshino would get to be a princess?!"**

Blanc shrugged "Kind of, I suppose…"

" **Awesome! Let's do it!"** shouted Yoshinon

"See Mina the puppet thinks it's a good idea" Blanc joked much to Mina's frustration

The older Bluenette closed her eyes and put a hand to her head, feeling a migraine coming on "You're going to do this no matter what I say aren't you?" she asked knowing just how hard headed Blanc could be

"Already did it"

"What?!"

When Mina opened her eyes she saw Blanc had already moved from where she had been standing and was currently holding Yoshino's hand up to the crystal

"Lady Blanc wait!"

It was too late as Yoshino began to glow before her entire body was enveloped in a white light that filled the entire room.

" **So bright! My eye!"**

"Yoshinon I'm scared!"

" **Just hold on Yoshino! I want to see what you evolve into! Maybe your second form will have boobs!"**

There wasn't any pain but deep inside Yoshino could feel so many strange things begin to shift and chrun. It almost felt when she had made a link to Shido during their kiss but instead of it only being two people linked together Yoshino could feel paths to at least three more open up. Now she wasn't just linked to Shido, she was linked to Blanc and two other playful hearts she didn't recognize.

' _Rom, Ram; I feel you'_ Blanc could sense them too and knew instantly who it was, even if they weren't in this word she could feel her two sisters through the link they all shared to the crystal.

When the light died down Yoshino appeared unchanged but dropped to the floor in exhaustion. The transformation hadn't hurt but her body felt sore all over like she had just traveled all over town on foot.

" **Darn it! I was hoping we'd get a cool redesign! What's the point of evolving if you don't get another head or something?!"**

Blanc bent over to check on Yoshino fast before notifying Mina of what she had felt "Mina! I could sense the twins! They're ok!" she informed the rather surprised Oracle

"Really? Are you sure?"

"No doubt! It was them!"

"Remarkable, if they're still linked to the crystal and connected to the shares that means whatever world they ended up in must be very close by!" Mina deduced

Everyone has assumed Rom and Ram might have ended up in some far off dimension based on just how much power Nepgear's machine had inside it when it exploded. If they were still linked to the Sharacite that means whatever world they were stuck in was extraordinary close to theirs.

"Such a link, if this is true we might be able to follow the flow of shares across words and figure out where they ended up!"

"Mina can you write Histoire now and tell her what we've found?"

"I'll do it right away!"

Mina hurried out the door leaving Blanc with a Yoshino who was splayed out over the floor. The connecting process had taken the wind right out of her and left her feeling rather strange.

"Yoshinon...I feel weird…" she said with a slight moan

" **Well we did just become a hybrid Goddess/Spirit Type"**

Yoshino lifted her arms up and began to stare at them like she expected they to look different

"My powers feel funny…"

" **Relax, I'm sure this will have no unforeseen cross-dimensional repercussions at all!"**

 _ **(Neptune: Boo! That setup was way too obvious!)**_

" **Oh shut up!"**

* * *

Ratatoskr Underground Holding facility, Morning

It had been roughly 18 hours since Shido and the rest of the girls brought in the new twins called Rom and Ram after their encounter in the mall. All 18 had been rough for Shido and the spirits who just weren't sure what to make of the situation. This wasn't a simple matter of whether or not Yoshino was ok; if she had truly been split into two like everyone thought what were they supposed to do? Did this mean the original Yoshino was dead? Could she be put back together at Rom and Ram's expense? What were they supposed to do with the twins in the meantime? What if they didn't want to go back together?

No one knew how to react especially considering Kaguya and Yuzuru went through the same thing. Shido could tell the Yamai sisters were conflicted by what had happened to their friend and were more than a little annoyed by Natsumi's frantic panic over the whole ordeal.

' _Those two were created when a spirit split so acting like it's a horrible thing to happen to someone might be a little insulting to them_

Of course it was hard to blame her for her panic; Yoshino was Natsumi's best friend and if they never figured out how to get her back together it was possible none of them might ever talk to the original Yoshino again. It was a heart wrenching idea for everyone that cared about her and more than a few tears had been shed at the Spirit's mansion the previous night. Even now Miku was still damp eyed as she, Shido, and the rest of the spirits walked through the holding facility Rom and Ram were being tested in to figure out what had happened.

Currently Miku was telling him and the girls about the horrible nightmare she had night before "-Then Yoshino-san took out this big hammer and started attacking me while swearing and yelling something about maid outfits! She even called me Jello Jugs! Do you think it's one of those things were a dream means something? Do you think it's a sign that has something to do with what happened?!" she asked the others

"Relax Miku, I'm sure it was just a bad dream" Shido assured her

"However if you see Ram or Rom approach you with a claw hammer I'd suggest running" joked Kaguya dryly

"Agree. Flee at full speed" added Yuzuru

Shido could see Miku cower slightly and simply stated "Let's hold off on assuming anything with those two. We still don't know for sure who they are or how they can use ice powers like that. Let's wait for Reine and Kotori to finish their tests before we jump to conclusions about what happened to Yoshino"

There was no point in getting all worked up before they were even sure of who the twins were.

At least that's what Shido believed until the door in front of him slammed open to reveal a distraught Kotori running from the testing chamber Ratatoskr had Ram and Rom set up in...

"Kotori?! What's wrong!?"

His little sister just stopped and stared at him without a word, obviously too upset to speak. Within seconds Reine followed her out looking grim but not as upset as her commander did.

"Shido, everyone, you'll need to see this…" she said as she gestured for them to enter the chamber's observation room.

Inside was a bank of monitors and a large window overlooking the testing chamber itself. Shido wasn't even through the door when he saw what had upset Kotori through the observation window and heard Rom and Ram call out with joy.

"This is so much fun Ram! I didn't know we could do this!"

"Awesome! This game has summons in it!"

Shido and the rest of spirit's jaws dropped as they all saw Rom and Ram joy riding on the back of Zadkiel in the form of a giant Raccoon Dog marionette all over the testing chamber.

Behind the stunned group Reine walked up and delivered a line all of them had been dreading

"They summoned it by accident a few minutes ago. I think we can confirm these two's origins now…."

* * *

Author note: I'll fully admit it, the whole Yoshino being pissed off at Miku thing was added solely because I find the idea of Blancified Yoshino hilarious. Sorry if anyone finds anything about the characters OOC. I took quite the few liberties with this chapter. Kinda rushed towards the end here so I may update this chapter at a later time with fixes. Please leave a review if you like the story.


	7. Bonus 2

**Nep A Live**

 **Bonus 2**

* * *

From out of the shadows stepped a devilishly delightful sight; a beautiful young maiden with midnight black hair tied up in two twintails. Her attire was that of a red gothic lolita dress that held a blood red glow in the faint light of her meeting place. The deadly and mysterious girl held both eyes; one piercing red and the other a orange-yellow clock; on the girl that stood across from her.

"~Ara, You're on time as always"

Her companion huffed and brushed away one of her own black tails.

"It's a CPU's duty to be punctual you know! Of course I am!" she stated proudly

The CPU of Lastation wore her usual garments of black and white but carried a small black suitcase in one hand that was barely enough to hold what she needed.

"So...Did you bring what we require?" asked Kurumi

Noire could see she was staring at the case and gave a smirk "I finished them this morning, easily some of my best work if I say so myself!"

"Ah, but you would call spilt ink on a paper a novel worthy of awards with your pride!" Kurumi teased

"Whatever, are we doing this?"

"But of course!" Kurumi smiled and twirled her way over to Noire like a ballerina before stopping mere inches from her face "Are you ready to die my sweet Noire?!"

The CPU didn't even flinch "I always go into battle prepared to face my death; my pride as a CPU demands it. Are you prepared to die?" she challenged with poise and dignity

Kurumi's haunting giggling filled the darkness around the two "Me? But of course!" she yelled with her eyes all crazy "I die all the time so what's a few hundred more?!"

"I'm afraid your clones won't help you this time. Death will come fast and only those with skill and fast reflexes will last more than a few seconds! I sincerely hope throwing clones at everything hasn't dulled your edge!"

If anything, Noire's taunting was getting Kurumi more excited

"There's a reason I like you ya know, that kind of bravery in the face of your certain deaths is almost _endearing_ for some reason!"

"If you think something like this is going to scare me off you don't know anything about me!" bragged Noire with a grin, feeling worked up herself

This was all getting to be too much for Kurumi to put off any longer!

"Enough talk then! Let us dance the dance of death!" she offered her hand out to Noire as she spoke

Noire met her challenge and shook her hand with a "Gladly!" in response

The mysterious black case was lifted between the two where Kurumi cracked the top lock...

"Don't disappoint me Noire!"

"Save that for the save point Kurumi!"

* * *

Fifteen Minutes Later

"Overhead! It's a overhead strike! Watch the combos!"

"You worry too much dear. I see it coming…"

"Tell that to your blood stain afte-Popping a Vial!"

"Ara~ Here it comes!"

"Right! Right! To the right!"

"We won't let you heal you overgrown fox! Come to your nightmare!"

"Darn it! The dress keeps getting in the way! Why didn't I upgrade with the bloodstone back in the dream!?"

"We'll win Noire, don't you worry about that!"

"Molotov out!"

"Next time wait for me to toss the oil first..."

"Little busy trying to not get trampled here!"

"Out of vials! Ara~! Who programmed such a difficulty spike!?"

"I think we were supposed to head into the woods first..."

There was a furious clacking noise between the two girls as they continued to talk and stare at their monitors; each girl's controller was abuzz with activity as they did their best to avoid the wrath of the large white monster they were facing.

Rather than their standard outfits each was wearing a long black overcoat equipped with belts, buckles, and a cape that only went to the end of their arms. Atop their heads was a frayed tri-tipped hat and both girls had covered their faces with a simple black kerchief that only served to highlight Kurumi's clock eye further.

The two continued to play on their simple TVs, Consoles, pillows setup in the darkness of the abandoned warehouse where they met. Only a few of Kurumi's normally dressed clones watched from the sidelines with interest as the two played together in their cosplay.

 _ **PREY SLAUGHTERED**_

"Never stood a chance!"

"I know you worked hard to get this as an exclusive from that blonde rival of yours, I'd say it was worth it…"

"Thanks"

As the monster on the screen fell before their might all Noire could think of was all the times Neptune mocked her for having no friends. With Kurumi by her side Noire didn't just have A friend; now she had lots of A friend!

* * *

Author Note: I know this story just got updated but this idea hit me in the middle of the night and I HAD to write it out. I challenge anyone to envision Kurumi and Noire playing Bloodborne in cosplay and just ignore it! This isn't canon to the rest of the fic at all, it's just a fun idea I put out in half an hour before bed that I hope everyone else will enjoy. Might do more of these short DAL and HDN characters gaming together bonus chapters in the future. Feel free to suggest who should play what with who in the reviews.


	8. Stealth Section

**Nep A Live**

 **Chapter 6: Stealth Section**

* * *

Underground Ratatoskr Base

' _Ok just keep your cool. You've handled worse than this before and if these two are truly just Yoshino split in half surely you can keep them in check right?'_

Shido was getting nervous as he headed to the quarantine zone Kotori had stuck the twins in after their examinations with the Yamai sisters as back up. According to what they had been told the sister called Ram was getting anxious after getting locked up for so long and despite attempts to placate her over the intercom system she had somehow shut down the room's security cameras (most likely frozen solid) and she and her sister Rom had been silent since.

Kotori sent Shido and the Yamai sisters to calm them down before things could get out of hand. Shido wasn't sure just how powerful those two were or even if they were still sealed but considering they had blown clean through Mather's defense with that energy ball of theirs it was safe to say they could easily cause a problem if they rampaged out of control.

"Statement. Hard to blame them. They've been contained underground without answers for some time" said Yuzuru

"Long times entombed can easily cause madness to set in!" agreed her sister Kaguya

Shido had to agree with Kaguya and Yuzuru's assessment that perhaps the two had gone a bit stir crazy and that leaving them in the dark this long might not have been the best idea. They had trusted Shido and the others and while Shido could understand his sister's reluctance to give them more details it might have been better to be more open with them.

"I guess going so long without seeing anyone after "being born" like they were would naturally upset them" he conceded

Kaguya turned and walked backwards casually while looking at Shido.

"If this is how me or my sister had been treated we would have probably obliterated this facility with our winds before making our daring escape!" she said with a taunting smile

"God I hope those two are different" sighed Shido before lightly prodding the twins about what they thought about Ram and Rom.

Kaguya's smile could be seen going sour before turned back around and walked normally to keep Shido from seeing her conflicted face.

"What we think…?" she uttered

"Unsure. the prospect of having another set of spirits like us around is undeniably exciting but at the same time we are faced with the potential loss of the original Yoshino who both Yamami's treasure as a friend. We don't know if the original Yamai had anyone in this world who cared about her so our split can be seen as victimless while this situation is still very much in flux" stated Yuzuru who had obviously been thinking about her and Kaguya's split since this happened

Things took a turn for the serious as Kaguya posed Shido a question that had been bugging her since Rom and Ram arrived.

"So Shido, if me and Yuzuru could perform a great fusion dance and return to how we once were would you prefer that or…"

"Not even close, I care about you two and wouldn't trade you away no matter what" answered Shido with confidence before Kaguya could even finish asking

Both of the orange haired sisters blushed nervously and traded playful looks with another while whispering their comments.

"Three Way. I wonder if Shido-kun says such things because he favors the harem route ending my sister?" Yuzuru teased

"Well how could we be so cruel as to make him choose between the beauties of the Yamais? Considering what happened back during our final contest I'd even say it might be impossible to make such a choice, like choosing between water to drink or air to breathe!" replied a glowing Kaguya

"What are you two talking about over there?" Shido asked as the three continued to walk along with the twins huddled amongst themselves in secret

"Hehe! Maybe Shido might prefer more splits for double the harem size?" teased Kaguya

"Unease. With that cannon out there it might be possible but consider what that might mean my sister, do you even wish to consider what two Mikus might be like?"

With how hard Kaguya shivered you would have thought she was outside in a bathing suit in January "One is hard enough to handle! Two would be madness!"

Yuzuru have a playful smile cross her face as she pondered "Double. Still, I must admit that the idea of twins for each spirit is interesting. I wonder what Master Origami would look like as a pair of sisters?"

Kaguya snickered and said "All I can see them doing is feuding with the Tohka twins who would end up eating everything in their path like a plague of locust spirits!"

"Hey hey you two, let's stop before someone says something offensive to the others!" cautioned Shido before either twin could inadvertently insult one of the other spirits

Both stopped regardless upon reaching the room the ice twins had been held in only to find the door wide open when it was supposed to be locked tight.

"Huh? They blasted their way out so silently?!" gasped Kaguya

"Escape. No my sister, look at how the door is unharmed rather than pried open!" replied Yuzuru as she pointed out that the door was totally undamaged

"Impossible!" said Shido in disbelief as he and the sisters can over to examine the door from the inside of the room "Kotori said this was an electronic lock that could only be opened from the control room! They shouldn't have been able to just open it!"

"Idea. Perhaps their powers were used somehow?" suggested Yuzuru

"How could ice and water be used to open a locked door sealed by computers?" asked Kaguya with confusion

If it was a standard key type lock perhaps they could forge a mock key of ice but with the door being digitally sealed it made no sense for them to be able to open it so easily.

"Hold on! I'll call Kotori! She'll want to know those two escaped!"

Shido ran over to the room's intercom panel and contacted Reine in the control room who had taken over while Kotori was out for the moment. Behind him the twins investigated the door's digital control panel and noticed something strange about the display.

 _User Login:_ _Ram DMC_ _ & __Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of Rom_ _confirmed…_

 _Access Level: Commander…_

 _Security Lockdown: Rescinded…_

 _Door Lock: Override…._

 _Doomed. Exe: installed…_

 _Save File:_ _Ram &Rom_ _Created…_

 _Resume Game…?_

"What the?! They hacked the door's keypad and had enough time to get a game to run on it?!" said Kaguya in shock disbelief at the two sister's apparent technical skills

Yuzuru was a bit less expressive and opened up the save file to see how far the twins had gotten in their game before they got bored and left.

Both of the Yamai sisters eyes lit up upon seeing just how well the Ice Twins had done in finding all of the game's secrets

"Hidden. I had no knowledge of the hidden alcove behind the wall containing that power weapon on this level!" said Yuzuru with awe

Kaguya had a thoughtful hand to her lips as she realized just how thorough they had been "100% completion on secrets for all levels?! We appear to be dealing with a very knowledgeable set of Gaming Wizards!"

"Question. Those are a thing?" asked Yuzuru with one eyebrow cocked

"Of course! I've heard tales of them and their infamous gloves of power!" explained an enthusiastic Kaguya

"So bad. I think that was a movie and that you mean gaming prodigies…" Yuzuru pointed out

"Regardless!" shouted Kaguya with a raised first "The Yamai sisters may have finally met those worthy of being their partners for the great battle that is to come!"

A most satisfied grin crossed Yuzuru's face when she realized what had gotten her sister so hyped up. There was a massive gaming competition that was to take place soon in the city's main expo hall both had been keen to enter since it was announced. It was to include everything from FPS to RTS to Brawlers and Racing games from any and all platforms with the ultimate winners taking home a colossal gold trophy.

While the two were sure Kotori wouldn't oppose their decision to enter the bigger problem was the fact that only teams of 4 were allowed to compete and up till now they had been left without allies who could play at their level. Sure the other spirits would probably enter with them if asked but if Kaguya and Yuzuru really wanted to win they knew they'd need some heavy hitters to help them out.

"Statement. I see, If the siblings Rom and Ram are as good as we suspect-"

"-The most noble team of Yamai shall be playing with power!" shouted Kaguya

"Statement. We must find them…"

"Agreed!"

With a knowing look both twins rushed out the room to find Ram and Rom, leaving a confused Shido to wonder where they ran off to after he was done on the phone.

* * *

In another part of the base Rom and Ram stealthily moved their cardboard box up to a room marked _Mainframe Access A-1_ and shuffled inside without being spotted.

"Ugh! That took longer than I thought it would thanks to all those security cameras we had to dodge!" groaned Ram as she lifted the box off of herself and Rom

"They really kept us waiting huh?" commented the quieter sister as she got up and stretched bit after being crouched down in the box for so long

"So then, this is the mainframe?" asked Ram as she looked at the large collection of computers and monitors quietly humming in the center of the room

"Why did we come here anyway Ram...why did you want to see this place so bad?" asked Rom while her sister walked up to the biggest (And therefore most important) monitor and plugged in her handheld

 _ **Hold A to Hack Mainframe**_

Ram did as instructed and held the button down while a circular gauge slowly filled on her touchscreen like it had before with their room's door lock.

"It's simple Rom! The mainframe is where everyone keeps their important stuff!"

"What stuff?" asked Rom innocently, feeling a little bad about breaking into that group the nice boy Shido belonged to's computers

"Important information-type stuff! Plans for world domination, blueprints for superweapons, prisoner locations, self destruct passwords…"

"Let's try not to blow up this secret base this time Ram. Uni was reeaaaallly upset about that offshore underwater base belonging to her sister we blew up" Rom cautioned her sister

"First off: That was a under _ **water**_ base, not under _ **ground**_! They're totally different! Second: How was that our fault!? What kind of dummy makes the self destruct password for their secret base so easy to guess!?" said Ram in her defense

When Noire had pointed out the main computer console of the Lastation Submarine base to her visiting friends (why she needed to show off her secret base was anyone's guess) she had mentioned it included a self destruct sequence with a password only she claimed to know and challenged anyone to guess what it was.

 _Ram: "Is it ILuvTwintails?"_

 _Base Compter: Termination password confirmed. Total base annihilation in 60 seconds 59, 58, 57, 56…_

 _Noire: "...EVERYONE RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!"_

Leaving the memories of fleeing from the exploding underwater facility behind Ram continued to hold her button down until the system was successfully breached and opened up to her and Rom.

"Got it! Ok! Let's see who these guys are and what plot arc our game has!" cheered Ram as she began to access every file stored on Rataoskr's databases.

Sadly things weren't as cut and dry as she was hoping as page after page after page of endless numbers and charts with no clear meaning bombarded her.

"What the hey?! What is all this stuff?!" she shouted

"Umm...I think those are expense reports...those look like charts about predicted operating costs for new spirits...I think I see staff suggestions…" listed Rom as she peeked through the files Ram was cycling through

"Well where's all the good stuff!? The secret evil plans? The clearly marked notes giving us clues about what we need to do? The stupid audio logs everyone always makes right before they die off camera!?" yelled Ram in frustration

"This is everything they have, I guess that means it includes all the boring paperwork like the stuff Big sister always has stacked on her desk or the stuff Neptune always ignores?" guessed Rom softly "This secret base looks really big...and expensive...running a group that could afford this must take a lot of work..."

When Ram had accessed everything she got everything, which included every last piece of paperwork the entire organization had to fill out. It turns out that while hacking may have still carried the same rules as it did in their world the "leave everything important to the plot marked for easy spotting" part was clearly left out.

"This sucks! I'm not going through all this!"

"Hold on Ram...Lets see if we can't narrow things down a bit" Rom suggested as she took the handheld from her sister and typed in a few search terms

"Ok...I think this is good…" she said as the files focused on the spirits was brought up, including a full list of their stats

Ram gave her sister a smile "Awesome Rom! You found our party's stats! Now we can figure out how to build them when they level up!"

Both girls began to pour through the files and remark on the contents within.

"Wow...look at that Tohka girl's strength…"

"Well it better be high! According to this her intelligence is barely above a steamed vegetable!"

"Whoever this "Nightmare" is has super high intelligence...she must be a strong caster!"

"We didn't meet anyone with that name, maybe she's a OP DLC character?"

"Hmmm….It looks like Yuzuru is the smarter of the other twins...I'd better not tell her sister that…"

"That Miku girl doesn't have great stats. She better have some really good abilites to make up for it or I'm leaving her out of the party!"

"Ram what's an invernse?...Boy that's a hard word to say..."

"No clue, why?"

"It says here that invernse Tohka is way stronger than regular Tohka...I think they have 2nd forms like us...I wonder what they look like?"

"I was wondering about that! I didn't want to use our HDD before because I wasn't sure if this game had transformations but if it does that means we can really let loose next time!"

"Huh? Ram do you recognize this girl from somewhere?"

On the screen was the picture of a girl with blue hair carrying a rabbit puppet on her hand. Rom wasn't sure but she swore the girl seemed similar to her for some reason which left her feeling puzzled.

"Yoshino? Wait...how did I know that name?" asked a equally confused Ram

"Yeah her name is Yoshino, it says it right here!" pointed out Rom "How did you know it without even looking?"

Ram scratched her head "I have no idea. I know who she is but I have no clue why…"

"This is weird Ram…"

"Yeah…"

With both girls racking their brains for answers neither noticed the little popup on the handheld screen that read _Transmission Intercepted!_

It wasn't till a video screen opened showing Kotori sitting in front of her superiors that either girl payed any attention to what was on the monitor.

"Look Rom! That bossy girl with the red hair is holding a secret meeting with someone!" exclaimed Ram

"I think she had a name Ram...I forgot what it was though…"

"Eh, until we remember I'm just calling her Noire: Red Version!" dismissed Ram playfully

"What are they talking about?" questioned Rom

"Let's listen in!"

Both girls locked their eyes on the screen as Kotori began to speak with her bosses about the events of the last 24 hours...


	9. Gear Score

**Nep A Live**

 **Chapter 7: Gear Score**

* * *

Leanbox Basilcom

"Figures Chika's out when we could use her help looking around this place. Why the hell do all these rooms look alike?!" groaned a frustrated Blanc

It was roughly eight in the morning as Blanc wandered the halls of the Leanbox Basilicom, this could only mean one thing: Vert was finally about to finish up last night's gaming session in her computer room. Blanc had chosen this time since it tended to be that sweet spot when dealing with Vert that was between her being full of energy and the lack of sleep finally catching up with her. It meant the Leanbox CPU would be still conscious without being overly annoying or energetic towards visitors.

Behind Blanc prodded the ever innocent Yoshino and her hero Yoshinon, looking in awe at all the green and white Basilicom had to offer. They had been told each nation and their goddesses stuck to different styles but it was still so odd to see how different the Leanbox Basilicom was from the Lowee and Planeptune ones she had in so far. The regal halls and elegant furniture reminded Yoshino of what little she had ever seen of the inside of Miku's home, further adding credence to what Blanc had told her about this "Vert" being this world's version of the idol.

"And finally here it is; the den of any MMO junkie" sighed Blanc as she walked up to Vert's computer room and saw a light coming from under the door

( ***Knock Knock*)**

No answer…

" **Maybe she just left her computer on after going to bed?"** suggested Yoshinon

Never the one to back down from a simple challenge Blanc didn't bother knocking again and simply threw the door open. Inside the darkened room was a vast sea of emerald colored plastic bottles surrounding the island of Vert's computer where the CPU in question sat with a pair of expensive looking headphones on.

"You idiot! At least turn on some lights if you're going to be looking at a screen for eighteen hours straight!"

As much as the idea of Vert going totally blind thanks to her stupidity amuses her Blanc knew she couldn't just let the Leanbox CPU destroy her eyes like this.

Vert continued to simply stare at her monitor in the darkness without responding, forcing Blanc to navigate the pile of discarded soda bottles to reach the room's control panel. Simply going over and touching Vert would have worked but the damn pile of garbage was even thicker around her and wading through any more of this crap than she had too repulsed Blanc.

" **Is she possessed or something?"** Yoshinon pondered when it noticed Vert didn't seem to be blinking

Blanc gave a frustrated grunt "No, 4 Goddesses dropped a content update last night...at 2 A.M." she revealed.

Normally Vert stayed up that late anyway but since this was the game's biggest update in four months she had been particularly annoying to anyone subscribed to her social media feed last night. The servers had been brought down but the update had been delayed from it's scheduled 8 P.M. launch to past midnight meaning Blanc's computer was bombarded by stupid forum post alerts and tweets from the Blonde complaining about the delay along with every other idiot online she subbed to. When it finally launched Vert must have spent the whole night downloading the massive patch and playing the hell out of the new content.

"It pisses me off she can neglect this much sleep and still look this good but the second I stay up past one in the morning I look like crap the next day!" admitted Blanc openly since she knew Vert wouldn't be able to hear her and mock her for it.

Once the Lowee CPU reached the control panel and light filled the room again Vert's attention was finally directed off of her screen-

"Yoshino-san!"

-And right onto Yoshino…

The humble ice spirit bunched up in a panic, she knew how this would go already after so many run ins with Miku! The blonde would rush her and wrap her in a giant boobie faceplant hug while calling her pet names!

"Hold it right there Thunder Tits!" shouted Blanc as she stepped in Vert's path before she could commence her cuddling/personal space invasion

Yoshino stood in awe at the way Blanc confidently deflected Vert's overtures without flinching. How could someone be that strong?

' _Blanc's so amazing'_ she thought while wishing she could put her own foot down with Miku like Blanc had just done with Vert

That strength, Yoshino wanted it so badly. She wanted to be able to finally have her voice heard without being held back by fear. For months now Yoshino had wanted to speak openly with Miku about the feelings she had left over from her brainwashing rampage where they had met but found herself unable to confront the idol on even terms. Miku had apologized but...well...Yoshino just found herself unable to let go after finding out what exactly she had made her do later from Origami.

' _Is this petty? Am I being a bad girl for still being mad about this?'_ she always wondered

Yoshinon told her time and time again that she just wanted Miku to properly apologize and that, quote **"When you think about it, making you try to kill your lover and abandon your best friend to be captured is** **really** **messed up!"** so she shouldn't have any regrets over feeling this way.

' _Maybe Miss Blanc can really help me be more assertive like Yoshinon wants me to be? I'd really like that...as long as I don't end up too mean of course!'_

While Yoshino contemplated her own motives for joining her this morning Blanc explained to Vert that she wanted Yoshino to build up strength and that (sadly) there truly was no better power leveler in all of Gamindustri . Vert was almost infamous for her grinding techniques in both the real world and virtual ones. There had yet to be an EXP bar that she couldn't make cry in agony some people claimed and Yoshino needed help fast.

Before leaving that morning Mina had advised Blanc to help Yoshino build up her strength and have her start questing for shares quickly. The reason they hadn't detected the twins before Yoshino was linked to the crystal was that she had acted a router of sorts connecting back to the world she came from due to her still being linked to the boy Shido by their kiss. With Rom and Ram in Yoshino's world and still connected to the Lowee crystal they had forged one link between the worlds so Yoshino's had doubled the strength of the connection when it was formed. Both Mina and Histoire wanted to see if the connection could be made even stronger if Yoshino bonded more deeply with the Sharacite by gathering her own shares. A stronger connection meant they might be able to communicate with the twins at some point or even hasten the speed at which they figured out which world they were in so they could be brought home.

In short: More levels and power for Yoshino meant she could gather more shares, more shares meant a stronger connection, a stronger connection meant everyone got back where they belonged sooner.

Of course while asking Vert for help made sense with her grinding skills the CPU gave a most sickening smirk in response to Blanc admittance that only fueled her desire to clock Vert in the face "So little Yoshino-san needs help getting stronger in order to keep her own power from overwhelming her?" she repeated before giving the blue haired girl an almost _predatory_ look and stating "Don't worry bout a thing! She'll be _very_ safe in my hands while we commence our training!"

"Not a chance in hell I'm leaving her in your hands, I'm coming with her Thunder Tits" warned Blanc to shoot down Vert's plan before she could go any further

Vert smirked again and challenged Blanc with "This could take a while and I'm sure you must be needed back in Lowee with the twins gone. I can handle this while you deal with matters of your nation"

' _She reeeeally thinks I'm dumb enough to leave her alone with Yoshino? I'd come back to find her burying her face in those jugs on the couch like she always does with Nepgear'_ realized Blanc while preparing the sucker punch she had been saving since she left home this morning

' _Oh she's going to_ _ **hate**_ _this part!'_ Blanc thought with a devilish grin as she remembered one little detail she had left out while explaining this to Vert

"You see Vert, Yoshino is now a matter pertaining to Lowee as a nation" stated Blanc matter of factly with a faux cheery smile that unnerved the other CPU

"Since when?" asked Vert, more than a little disturbed by the fact that Blanc seemed to be making a very _Iris Heart_ type face right now

"As of last night when Yoshino's crystal was linked with Lowee's Sharacite. Yoshino is now officially a CPU candidate of Lowee…"

(Sound of record scratching)

"..."

" **Um. Did we break her?"**

* * *

Planeptune Basilicom

" _ **RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**_

As Nepgear worked on her broken P.L.O.T Device in her lab she was roused from her focus by what sounded like unholy screaming which forced the candidate to scan the lab to make sure Neptune hadn't snuck in again and got her hand hurt on the particle beam saw like that time she wanted to see how well a laser cooked Poptarts.

"What the goodness?! What was that?!" she asked upon noticing no one was in the lab with her

There was a soft hiss of mechanical door sliding open to reveal Neptune pale, shaking and spasming as she ran over to hug her sister in relief.

"Nepgear! Thank Nepjesus you're still here!"

Nepgear gave her sister a confused look "Big sis? What was that? Why do you look pale?!"

"That, my dear Nep Jr, was the birth of a terrible demon! O-Cupz The Taken Queen is coming! She has been denied a little sister once more and will soon descend upon all cute girls in the land in an effort to build her great army of taken little sisters!"

Without warning Neptune lifted Nepgear into the air with unnatural strength and carried her to the door

"Agh! Big Sis! What are you doing?!"

"There's no time Nep Jr! She'll be in the great Red Rings of Jupiter with her dreadnaught soon and once she's there Neptune, i.e. ME!, is not far away! We must make for Lastation and find the Guardians of fate if we are to stop her from taking every little sister she can! Only the great Nolan-bot can tell us what to do!"

With that Neptune spirited her yelling sister out of her lab and off to do whatever the heck she was planning.

* * *

Vert's Computer Room

"I see you are taking this well" said Blanc, her voice dripping with smug sarcasm as Vert continued to lose her shit

" **THREE! YOU HAVE THREE NOW!? I CAN'T HAVE ONE LITTLE SISTER TO MYSELF BUT YOU GET THREE?!"**

"I assure you that it was all in the interest of Yoshino's wellbeing" replied Blanc

Vert stamped her foot "She could have been joined to Leanbox's Sharacite! I would have finally had a little sister all to my own!"

"Too bad!" Blanc replied with a smile that betrayed how much she was enjoying Vert's misery

"A brand new little sister candidate falls into our world and you snatch her up in less than a day!" Vert accused while pointing at Blanc "Is it not enough to already have the twins?! You HAD to take my chance at little sister love too?!"

" **Maybe more spirits will fall into this world at some point?"** suggested Yoshinon as his head popped up between the two CPU's faces

This was enough to get Vert thinking about that possibility. Blanc had proven with Yoshino that, at some level at least, Spirits and CPU's could be compatible and even be introduced into a nation's Sharacite Crystal. If that was true that meant all these other cute spirits might be possible candidates for being added to Leanbox's power, thus, becoming Vert's little sister or even, dare she imagine, little sisters…

' _If I can get to this other world I can begin my search there. I just need to figure out how'_ schemed the busty blonde

"Yoshino, are all the spirits as cute as you?" Vert asked

After turning red because of the cute comment the little bluenette managed to squeak out "W-W-Well...y-yes! There isn't a spirit I would call u-u-ugly!"

" **We have a very well rounded stock of cute spirits!"** advertised Yoshinon like a car dealer on a TV commercial **"We got big boobied older-sister type's, proud little sisters with twintails, playful gluttons like that Neptune girl, a possibly insane stalker who likes stealing underwear, a certainly insane Yandere who might try and eat you, one very depressed shapeshifter with self-image issues, and two twins who don't know the meaning of the word** **normal!** **"**

You could just see Vert's eyes start to shine on that last bit "Twins you say?!"

"Ummm, yeah...Kaguya and Yuzuru...They treat me and everyone nice but can act a little weird… also they kinda get scary when it comes to winning at things" explained Yoshino

" **Plus they wear really revealing clothes in battle and use wind powers"**

"Wind powers!? Revealing clothes!?" barked Vert in excitement before listing how well they matched while Blanc muttered counter arguments under her breath.

"I have wind magic!"

(So do Rom and Ram and any party member who uses magic for rush attacks)

"I love to win!"

(To the point of utter psychosis)

"And I dare anyone to find me someone who is more suited to exposing skin in combat! "

(* _Cough*_ Iris Heart _*Cough_ *)

"These two sound absolutely perfect! I must find a way to reach this other world!" Even as Vert was declaring her intentions Yoshino felt like she had just done something _really_ bad to Kaguya and Yuzuru even if she couldn't figure out exactly what it was yet.

"Whatever, can we get on with the training?" Blanc asked impatiently

"Certainly! Just let me make my daily offering and we shall go!"

After making that rather bizarre statement Vert scuttled past her mound of empty MT Dew bottles and proceeded to hit a button located on the room's control panel. Without explanation a wall pulled away for reveal what looked like a shrine with an offering plate surrounded by burning candles and printed out screenshots from many different MMOs. Upon the offering plate sat a very thin lock of yellow hair that was clearly from Vert next to a pile of ashes and a lighter.

"What the **hell** is this?!" asked a utterly confused Blanc

Vert actually looked proud as she turned and explained "This is my shrine to the most mighty of gods; the vengeful and unknowable Rngesus!"

" **A god prays to another god!? How strong is this other guy?!"** asked Yoshinon while Blanc gave Vert a look that made it seem like her head was going to explode

There was no way Vert was this insane she thought, this had to be a big joke at her expense or something to confuse Yoshino who knew little about this world...right?

"Praise be to the high lord of loot and master of criticals, may the greens be kept at bay and the legendaries bountiful with daily offering!"

Oh dear Rngesus she was actually praying to this stupid thing!

"What is this anyway?" asked Yoshino with curiosity as she lifted up the tiny lock of hair Vert was preparing to burn

"That? When I was thinking about offerings I could use I eventually caught on to the old Lowee custom of making good luck charms out of the pubic hair of a virgin-" Yoshino dropped the lock so fast you'd of thought it bit her **"We need hand sanitizer stat!"** shouted Yoshinon as his owner ran around the room with her arms flailing wildly

Vert paid her no mind and finished explaining "-I care about my personal grooming and needed an offering that was cheap to acquire. I killed two birds with one stone and so far they seem to work rather swimmingly!"

"How the hell can you tell!?" screamed Blanc, utterly baffled by this insanity

"I just can" replied Vert with a wink

"There's **no possible** way this could actually work you moron!"

With a hand to her chest in the traditional "Well excuse me!" pose Vert replied by telling Blanc of all her various bounties since she installed the shrine.

"I'll have you know that since I started doing this my luck with the random number generator has been flawless!"

"Like how?" challenged the skeptical Blanc

"Behold! A screenshot of my Time Lost Proto Drake!"

"Never heard of it…"

"Google it and you shall be impressed! And this! My Scindo Prime who's blade I acquired on the first run!"

"Drawing a blank again…"

"Surely you realize what an accomplishment it is to have such a collection of rare CS: GO skins?"

Blanc took one of the the pictures that was held up and scoffed "It just looks like a bloody knife…"

"That's one of three with StatTrak I had, I sold it for 5400 credits and found another the next day" revealed Vert to Blanc's annoyance

"Who the hell buys this crap!? What kind of con-man sets up a game to make money with skins this rare?!"

After hearing Blanc mention the word con-man Vert gave Yoshino a quick head to toe look and thought of something.

"Blanc? Is this really what Yoshino is going to be wearing for our leveling spree? She seems very under equipped"

Considering Yoshino was only wearing a basic sailor uniform with no magic enchantments the CPU in white found it hard to argue with her and explained "We were going to get geared up at the nearest item shop before we left. Yoshino doesn't have any armor or weapons"

"There's no need" said Vert with a grin as she had already thought of something "I know exactly where we need to go for her equipment. All we're going to need is some shovels…"

* * *

Gamindustri Graveyard

About an hour later Vert, Blanc, and a terrified Yoshino&Yoshinon were making their way a blasted hellscape of endless wires, barren ground, and a bright red sky full of random flashes of lighting. While the CPU's (sadly) were too familiar with the place Yoshino was left quaking in her shoes as the three made their procession past piles of broken junk and what looked like dead bodies!

" **What is this place, a graveyard or a junkyard?! I can't tell!"** shouted Yoshinon as they passed yet another unmoving body.

"W-W-Why are none of these people buried!?" his owner added while looking at more of the unmoving "makers" as Blanc had called them

The taller CPU seemed unconcerned as she carried the three shovels she brought with her "Sadly we only managed to clear this place of monsters recently so there has been little time to get everything sorted out here. It should be fine like this for a little while since nothing rots here"

"M-Monsters?!" stuttered a white Yoshino

As if this place wasn't scary enough this place had actual monsters running around it at one point!?

"Watch your step"

While imagining what type of horrible monsters must of lived in a place like this Yoshino only barely managed to hear Blanc's warning in time to avoid falling into a giant pit someone had dug next to the path they were on. Looking down into it Yoshino thought it had to easily be twenty meters deep and wide, begging the question of what on earth was someone entombing in there?!

"S-So deep!"

" **No kidding! What type of grave is this big!?"**

Both the CPU's didn't pay much attention but Blanc took a wild guess of "Eh, it's probably just the mass grave reserved by EA's acquisitions department"

"Strange, I thought that was more towards the southern side of the graveyard" added Vert

Neither girl stopped as Yoshino stared down into the foreboding pit so when she finally noticed they were moving away both young spirit and puppet made a mad dash to catch up. After a couple more minutes of walking they reached a single gravestone which Vert insisted on stopping at without explanation.

Yoshinon read the gravestone's header **"Here lies Gust: master alchemist, fearless warrior, brilliant entrepreneur, true friend. You two know this person?"**

"Yes, she was a friend of ours" replied Vert as she dropped her payload of shovels onto the ground and stretched her aching back

"Still can't believe she's gone" commented Blanc sounding semi-sad as if she missed her but didn't feel _too_ torn up about it

"Such a sad way to go, to be retconned out of existence" said Vert with much more emotion

Memories of Gust and her antics still rang in Blanc's head as she pointed out "In all fairness she probably had this coming. She never hung around your cities Vert but, trust me, Gust had a habit of getting into trouble all over Lowee with her potions. Heck, last I heard she was getting in with a bad crowd affiliated with the Lastation Black Market families"

"Still, to end up in a shallow grave so young is very cruel" Vert pointed out before making an emotional 180 "Oh well, at least with the grave being shallow this'll be easy!" Both Yoshino and Blanc went wide-eyed as Vert actually began to dig up Gust's grave like it was the most normal thing in the world!

"WHAT THE HELL VERT?!"

The CPU in question didn't even stop digging as Blanc screamed at her and simply explained "Last time I checked Gust had a lovely set of rabbit themed armor with plenty of enchanted protections that would look great on little Yoshino. It's not like she's going to be needing it anymore in this place"

"I'm not wearing a dead girl's outfit!" Yoshino screamed while ducking a patch of flying dirt from Vert's shovel

"Nothing rots here so it should be very sanitary I assure you!"

"That's not the fucking point here Thunder Tits!" roared Blanc

"What?" Vert replied innocently, as if this _wasn't_ batshit insanity "Looting bodies for valuable gear is considering very acceptable in the lands of Skyrim and the Mojave Desert so why should it be not allowed here! I do this all the time in 4 Goddesses Online!"

Before Blanc could point how _**everything**_ about what Vert had just said was wrong the morally bankrupt gravedigger flung the coffin containing the other morally bankrupt gravedigger out of the hole and propped it up.

"Oh...I believe I have made a terrible mistake here…" commented Vert after getting the coffin out of the ground

" **Dig up the wrong one?"** asked Yoshinon

"No…"

Blanc was the next to take a guess "You just realized this is a horrible thing to do?"

"No…"

Of course not...

"Then wha-"

"I forgot a crowbar to open the lid" sighed Vert as she realized she packed too many shovels for a one person job and neglected to bring a way to pry open the lid lock

"You are a _TERRIBLE_ person…"

 ***Thud***

"D-D-Did the lid just open by itself…?" whispered Yoshino after the coffin door basically fell off it's hinges

From out of the box stumbled the familiar visage of a small girl with brown hair wearing a distinct set of blue bunny themed clothes. She said not a thing and only groaned as she took a few shambling steps towards the three with her head held low.

" **ZOMBIE! Kill it with violence!"**

With no concern whatsoever Vert looked over her pile of tools once again and sighed "And of course I forget my shotgun for any zombie situations. Egh! This is what happens when you don't pack properly for this type of work!"

"Waaaahhh! I don't want to have my brain eaten!" cried Yoshino as Blanc shoved the girl behind her for protection and drew her hammer

"You're early you know! I don't get my zombie themed spin off till next quarter!" Blanc declared

Right before she was about to bash the moving corpse back to whatever hell it came from Gust's body collapsed to the ground without much fanfare.

"Owwwww…."

" **Wait a sec...did that zombie just say "ow"?"** asked Yoshinon as he and (hesitantly) Yoshino peeked out from behind Blanc

"Finally….Someone came and got Gust out of that box…"

After giving Vert a subtle "what the hell?" look Blanc walked over to the body and flipped it over onto it's back to reveal a very much alive Gust looking up at her "Gust? You're alive?!"

She sounded dazed, confused, and (naturally) very relieved but Blanc could tell this girl was the real deal; this was Gust and not just some imposter "Yes, Gust is still among the living, although it may not have been like that for much longer if the CPUs Whiteheart and Greenheart didn't save her as they did"

"How are you still alive?! Even if you weren't dead before you were buried you must have been in that box since...since…" Blanc didn't want to admit she couldn't remember when Gust had "died" to her face. Forgetting a birthday was bad enough, imagine telling someone you forgot when they had died!

From the back Vert filled in the blanks "Let's see...It was between Mk 3 and Victory so...three to four years I'd guess?"

"That long!? I was only supposed to be under for one year!" she exclaimed

"You _planned_ this?!" asked Blanc in disbelief

As she got back to her feet Gust explained the whole sordid affair that had lead her to fake her own death years before in order to avoid being stuffed into a coffin while being **actually** dead.

"As you know Gust has always been keen on all matters of profit so when she heard one day of a great investment deal in Lowee she was quick to jump at the chance to, quote "triple any and all investments within half a year" endquote"

"Sounds too good to be true" voiced Vert suspiciously

Gust sighed with agreement "It was. Gust should have known never to trust a market as volatile as real estate but the sales pitch was truly inspired even by my standards. I won't bore you with the details but the story ends with Gust deeply in debt to-" Gust looked panicked and dropped into a hushed whisper " _That_ man!"

"Who?"

" _Him_! The most terrifying loan shark in all of Lowee!"

"Again I have to ask, who? I've never heard of any major loansharks in my nation" stated Blanc

" _He_ is very good at avoiding detection and passing himself off as a legitimate businessman to official figures. In the underground world we know better though, tales of his dedication to getting back what he is owed are legendary!"

"Still not ringing any bells here…"

"Bells are the problem!" Gust shouted suddenly "I owe him 1.5 million bells!"

" _Who_ do you owe so many bells?" asked Blanc feeling rather impatient at this point

"Mr. N! The terror of Lowee's real estate rackets and leader of the Racoon Dog mafia!" Gust finally explained

"Mr. N? Oh! You mean Mr. Tom Nook?" Blanc replied calmly as she finally realized who Gust was talking about and honestly found her fear a little silly "Mr. Nook is a legitimate businessman who has an impeccable record for paying his taxes to Lowee and even sponsored the recent Super Smash Sisters tournament through one of his own fighters. He's not dangerous to anyone Gust" she assured the young merchant

Rumors about him reached Blanc's ears all the time but she knew it had to all be a case of wild hearsay painting a successful individual in a negative light. No investigations had ever turned up anything and his history of giving to charities was frankly admirable in the CPU's eyes.

Gust was less naive and reacted in horror to what she had just been told " **YOU LET THAT LUNATIC ENTER A FIGHTING TOURNAMENT!?** "

"Yes, his bouts should be coming up soon actually"

"Gust must warn them! All those fighters are in serious danger! I've seen what Mr. Nook's enforcer can do with a butterfly net alone!"

"Before you go off to hassle totally legitimate businessman can i ask what your plan was here? How did you ever intend to get out of that hole?" Blanc interrupted

She couldn't have buried herself without help; someone had to been part of this plan so Blanc was wondering who it was and what went wrong.

"Gust was supposed to be dug up at a specific time and date! Her partner must of forgotten!" said Gust with a very noticeable hint of anger at the abandonment

"Who was it?"

"Well…"

* * *

Planeptune 2-3 Years Ago

"I still can't believe she talked me into this!" sighed Nepgear as she prepared the tools she would need to dig up Gust from her grave

Even she couldn't remember how the shrewd trader managed to rope her into this but begrudgingly got ready to fulfill her part of the deal.

"Oh Nep Jr!" her sister called from outside the room

"Yes sis?"

"I want to go shopping for some cute underwear and need someone to tell me if I look good in the ones I pick. Are you busy?" Neptune explained

There was a trail of fire leading out of Nepgear's door …

* * *

Gust raised a fist in the air "When Guest finds out why she left me Nepgear is going to pay with interest!!"

Feeling very tired from all the idiocy she had run into today Blanc finally decided to let Gust be on her way when Vert spoke up and asked about where to get clothes like hers for little Yoshino.

"I see! You want protection that is as stylish as Gust's for your new friend! I can't give you mine obviously but I do have a few spare sets in different styles...for a price of course!"

"But we just saved you from being buried alive!" argued Vert to which Gust countered by pointing out they had dug her up to loot her corpse "Besides, gratitude is not a tradable commodity and Gust will need funds to rebuild her business, punish Nepgear, and try and take on the Racoon Dog families of Lowee" said the young alchemist

Without further argument Blanc paid up when Gust produced a lovely set of armored clothes for Yoshino to equip. It was a cute ensemble comprised of a frilly green variation of Gust's outfit with a bunny symbol stitched into the chest over a large pouch, some knee high white shocks paired with a set of durable green traveling boots, and a much less oversized white bunny cap (Compared to Gust's) with floppy ears but no face on it. This was a very high quality set of adventuring gear obviously, paired with a good weapon and some more armor it would serve Yoshino well, however Blanc could already see a few ways to alter it to better fit the spirit. After running over her suggestions with both Vert and Yoshino the three left Gust and headed to Lastation to both get the outfit modified by Noire and head to a great shop Vert insisted would be perfect for Yoshino's first weapon.

Once they were gone Gust picked up one of the shovels Vert had left and made her way over to where she had buried most of her stock of potions and elixirs before she went under. Unfortunately once she got there all she found was a freshly dug hole only a day or two old and the case cracked open on the ground.

"And Gust has been robbed too?! Can this get any worse for my profit margin!?"

In a case of semi-mercy most of the potions were still in there with only a few missing; it was as if someone knew specifically what they wanted when they dug up the cache. It was what was missing from the case however that worried Gust since she made sure to only bury her most potent and valuable elixirs with her since she couldn't trust anyone else with them till she got back.

"Experimental 39: Check, Experimental 40: Still here, 41: Check, 42...Oh No! Experimental 42 is gone!"

Experimental 42 as it was dubbed wasn't just expensive to brew, costing close to 2 million in ingredients, it was also both absurdly unstable and it's components illegal. Mr Nook had commissioned it during their brief business period but after what he had done to her Gust decided to have it buried with her since it was just the thing to use as evidence against him should the need arise.

"This isn't good! Should Gust tell the CPUs? Gust fears being thrown in jail or having Mr. Nook find her but if that potion got into the wrong hands an angry raccoon will be the least of everyone's troubles!"

Gust packed up what was left and headed for civilization. She had to find that potion and **fast**! She could only hope no one had been dumb enough to use it yet!

* * *

Author Note: Moral of this story kids: Praise Rngesus for good drops and never fuck with Tom Nook. As always PLEASE leave a review if you like this story! Like Gust I am highly motivated by rewards!


	10. Bonus 3

Nep A Live Bonus 3:

Spoiler Warning

* * *

"AHAhAHAAHAHAHAAH! You fools! It's over! It's all over!" came the hysterical laughter of the abomination perched atop the highest skyscraper in Tenguu city.

There, it all it's abominable glory, was the Supreme Inverse Wescott/Deity of Sin hybrid crackling with a dark energy that constantly enveloped it's grotesque form dotted by molted angel wings and anti-crystals.

Everyone had fallen, The CPU's, the candidates, the newly created CPU spirits, Kurumi, the Phantom who had turned out to be [Redacted] the whole time, even the Ultradimension goddesses and the seven sages had failed to stop it.

"Can we...not win?" groaned past Vert as she staggered over the rest of the group who were all splayed out over the terrain injured

"I hate to say it but this might be it for all our worlds" added Future Black Heart

"Not like this...Darling never took my virginity…" croaked Miku over-dramatically

"Statement. Maybe there's enough time to correct that before we die at least?" moaned Yuzuru as she turned her glowing blue eyes with power symbols in them onto Shido's body

More specifically his belt….

"Ugh...Yuzuru? Can you not look down there right now?" questioned a uneasy Shido who noticed all the CPU Spirits now looking at him with hungry eyes.

"Deny. No. I call dibs on first"

"Sister I should get first!"

"Darling will die embracing me!"

"Muuuu!~ Shido will do… do… do whatever it is everyone is talking about with me first!"

" **Yoshino get in on this! Do you want to die a virgin?!"**

"Hweeeaaahh?!"

"Yoshino…? If you want to… Maybe we could… I mean, it's sort of sudden but… DO YOU WANT TO SHARE SHIDO WITH ME AND DO ALL SORTS OF NAUGHTY STUFF IN A THREEWAY?!"

"..." _(Yoshino has fainted)_

"That came out wrong…"

"Shido mate with me"

"All of you quit trying to violate my big brother!"

With the CPU Spirits bickering amongst themselves Neptune knew it was **her** job as lead heroine to fix this problem! "Bigger Histy, do you got enough juice in that book to cast one more summons?!" she shouted after coming out of HDD

"Maybe?" replied Histoire who was also thoroughly trashed and drained after attempting to join the fight

"Who the hell are we going to call?! We can't beat this shithead!" argued both future and past Blancs

"There's only one person -to- call!" declared Neptune as she placed her hand to Histoire's tome and conjured up a summoning circle.

' _Please be home! Please be home!'_

* * *

Less than a minute later Neptune's gambit bore results… sort of…

 _*Poof!*_

Neptune: "Alright! It worked"

From out of the circle walked a man bearing a strange, yet hardly game changing appearance.

Future Vert: "I mean no offense Neptune but what was the point of this summoning? This individual seems very unuseful"

She was referring to the man's bald head, yellow jumpsuit and red gloves with a white cape that made him look like he half-assed his costume, and the fact that he just seemed like some random freak picked off the street.

Uni: "is it just me or is this guy somewhat familiar? Ugh?! Sister?! Don't drag me!"

Future Noire: "RUNNNNNNNNNNNNN!"

Past Noir: "Huh?! Why is future me running away from this half-wit superhero cosplayer?!"

Rom&Ram: "Wha?! Put us down Blanc!"

Future Blanc: "HOLYFUCKSHIT! RUNNNNNNNNN!"

Tohka: "Why is everyone screaming and running away all of a sudden Shido?"

"Shido: "No idea…"

Kaguya: "Sister! This is **-him-**!"

Yuzuru: "Glory. The battle is won!"

Iris Heart: "Oh Neppy, that's just _**-mean-**_! I love it!

Past Vert: "Why is Iris Heart smiling so much suddenly?"

 _(Sound of exiting HDD)_

PLutia: "I'm going to need some popcorn for this. I just hope he doesn't finish -too- fast…"

Neptune: "Not a chance dear Ploot"

Yellow Heart: "Neptuna? What's about to happen?"

Neptune: "Awesome. Awesome is about to happen my dear P-Ko"

Stranger in yellow suit: "Oh Neptune. Is this another… how do you say… problem?"

Past Noire: "Jeeze! Don't get all hyped up or anything for an unholy god out to destroy all dimensions! I'm being sarcastic if you can't tell…"

Stranger: Dark god? Maybe this will be fun? I suppose… hopefully…."

Past Vert: "Ugh…. He sounds half asleep! Huh? Future me, why do you appear distressed?"

Future Vert: "I just recognized him from all that Yaoi fanart with Genos! We need to run! Noooooooowww!"

Stranger: "Well here I go I guess…."

Supreme Evil: "Another challenger rises to face us?! Die befor-"

 **BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!**

* * *

Neptune: "And that's how this story will end!"

Histoire: "No it's not, that's how -you- want it to end"

Neptune: "My version is better!"

Yoshinon: **"Can we get back to the part where the spirits do naughty things to Shido now?"**

Neptune: "This has been your holiday bonus chapter! I'm Neptune, see you all back in the main story!

Blanc: "We're back bitches!"

Author Note: Wanted to give everyone a little something for the Holidays so I wrote this up VERY fast. Sorry I never updated anyone but I took a season job with UPS and couldn't write for a month and a half thanks to a lack of time. It's over now so updates should resume on all my stories soon with Nep A Live and Broken Ice first up on the list with Ram on the Run in the wings.


	11. Nerf Bat

**Nep A Live**

 **Chapter 8: Nerf Bat**

* * *

' _God dammit…'_

For a normal girl Kotori's age the biggest headache one would have is worrying about getting in a book report on time, for the commander though her biggest headache was being called in by her bosses like this on such short notice.

It might not of been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that -she- had to show up while most of the other higher ups besides Woodman himself got to attend through black computer monitors that displayed a small speaker icon while talking.

These jackassess always got on her nerves with idiotic comment after idiotic comment. They didn't care about Shido, they didn't care about the spirit's well being, all they knew were numbers and efficiency. Even if they helped fund and organize this effort it was plain to see that the idea of a peaceful solution to the spirit issue was only secondary in their eyes. They had the eyes of a gang of predators, lusting after a big meal, who had become frustrated that they hadn't found an opening yet. It was not a matter of if but when, who, and how one or more of them would betray the organization and seek to harness the spirit's powers in some profoundly infantile way.

For the moment they were playing the game along with everyone else which meant going along with their demands for answers.

Ignoring outside influences the fact of the matter was that something completely unplanned had happened; a previously sealed and stable spirit had not only been divided into two but now both sides somehow appeared stronger than the original had ever been. Even if she didn't agree with them she knew this was a matter worth discussing.

"What is the net gain?" asked the asshole of monitor 3. His manner of speech and use of business terms suggested a CEO or other executive was behind that number but Kotori could never be certain.

Kotori once again spread out the collected data samples in front of her and read one part Reine had highlighted in red ink "We're looking at both of the new twins wielding power one and a half times over Yosh-Hermit's baseline as she was unsealed" she had to correct herself.

"Impossible!"

"What kind of tests did you-?"

Woodman could be seen silently gesturing for his companions to come to order as the almost sagely man weighed the information he was given, he was never known to be all smiles but to see how seriously he was talking this jarred even Kotori.

"What do we know about what happened to Hermit's body during the battle once she was struck by that beam? Do we know anything about this new weapon system DEM is field testing?"

"Sadly we know enough to be worried but not enough to have any practical countermeasures yet. As terrifying as it sounds, this new weapon appears to have the power to "rip" spirit power into shreds"

"Elaborate" demanded the military type from monitor 4

"In what few readings we got before everything when haywire Yoshino's limited astral dress didn't even slow the attack down. DEM has somehow developed a weapon that destabilizes and dissipates spirit power"

"Similar to our suppressing fields in the containment units?" asked the female from monitor 2, a more intellectual type of person.

"Only about 1000X more focused. The spirit Yuzuru of the Berserk twins took a glancing blow as they fled after the initial hit. She wasn't harmed-"

"Irrelevant" spoke monitor 3.

' _Jackasses'_

"-But her limited astral dress was punched clean through, no resistance"

"This is troubling" admitted Woodman.

"Indeed, I can't even imagine the costs and power requirements associated with such a system but the ability to totally defeat a spirit's defenses would be worth it" stated Kotori.

It wasn't well known but a spirit containment unit was an extraordinarily expensive piece of hardware. The special realizers built into each could bankrupt a smaller company just in construction costs alone. If DEM had somehow weaponized the damn things there wasn't a chance in hell they could have more than a few of these new cannons in operation; even they had to have limits.

"What about a unsealed spirit? Could they stand a chance?" came a voice.

"Doubtful, this beam breaks down the very basis of a spirit's powers. It would be a danger to any spirit no matter how strong" replied Kotori who suddenly found even herself rather intimidated. Her healing might not do a damn thing against this new type of weapon and god only knew her fiery red astral dress might as well not of even been on her with all the good it would do.

' _As much as I loath the idea we might actually need to send brother to warn Nightmare about this. She may be a ruthless killer but having her crystal fall into Wescott's hands would be a bigger problem than she ever could be'_ she worried.

This new weapon was cause for concern from even the mighty Nightmare. THAT was the level of the threat they now faced.

"So what happened to Hermit's body?" asked the voice of monitor two

"Truthfully? We can only speculate. It punctured her astral dress, there was a unbelievable spike of energy, she fell off the map, and minutes later we discover two twins bearing the same powers as her wandering around a mall with no memories. Based on DEM's reaction I'd say they didn't expect this result either"

"One spirit becomes two… It wouldn't fit with Wescott's plans" spoke Woodman, deep in thought.

"Unless there's something we don't know about DEM had nothing to gain from such an outcome. It appears this was an unexpected result of a mad science experiment. This could be what happens to any spirit hit by the beam or it could a a one in a million freak accident. We can't tell" Kotori revealed as she read her notes once again.

"At the very least this will make him reconsider his plans. He'd never retreat from such a power, this will only be a delay" Woodman assured them with utter confidence.

"In the meantime we believe his next move will either be to capture these new twins for study to determine what went wrong or to just throw caution to the wind and shoot another spirit to see what happens" stated the young commander.

Woodman could be nodding in agreement subtly "I wouldn't put the second option past him but creating more obstacles for himself isn't Wescott's way. These new Hermit twins are rather extraordinary as far as spirits go"

"They defy most of what we know. Their power is both vast and different from the rest" spoke Kotori absentmindedly before realizing that may not of been the best response in front of -this- group.

"Different how Commander?" spoke one of the monitors with a _supreme_ interest...

" _*Grrrrr*_ Based on initial tests- errr…."

"Yes? Commander?"

" _*Sigh*_ Whatever they're fueled by is different from a normal spirits energy. It's much harder to detect from long range, even unsealed those two haven't set off a single sensor on the parameter of the containment facility" Kotori was forced to admit.

"Undetectable by the AST?"

"More than likely. It took our lead analyst some quick thinking to even reconfigure our sensors enough to detect the two when they were actively using their powers. When idle both sisters are virtual ghosts to standard sensing equipment"

Renie had pulled nothing sort of a miracle while they were scanning every nook and cranny for the fallen Yoshino. It took a serious overhaul to finally find a setting that could sense the twin's powers on some level. Kotori still had no idea how she pulled it off, after detecting the temperature changes in the mall Reine randomly tried different configurations until they hit upon one that actually worked.

"Such a trait is...useful…"

"Aside from that both appear unbelievably stable. The standard battery of emotional stimuli couldn't even get them to freeze a cup of water if they didn't want to"

"You mean to tell us that despite being even more powerful this "other" energy is fully under their control?!" came a shout from the group.

Kotori knew this was going to be trouble but was forced to explain "We can't determine their upper limits at this time but we can say with confidence their powers work far more in concert with their wills than the rest. It may be a issue of lower peak strength in exchange for more control but that's only speculation"

After Tohka had smashed a bridge everyone felt it was for the best if a "baseline" was established for what the spirits could take before their emotions got the better of them.

It was a rather _interesting_ test…

* * *

"Ok, Tohka is in chamber one. Set the bread on fire!"

 _ ***Boom***_

"Expected. Alright, Kaguya is in chamber 2 and her sister is in chamber 3. Deploy the spider cage!"

 **BY THE DARK GODS! KEEP AWAY FROM ME YOU DEATHWEAVERS!**

"Oh right, Kaguya doesn't like spiders but Yuzuru is fine with them. We'll have to try something else with her later. Onto Yoshino, chamber 4, play the video!"

 _ ***Warning Siren***_

"Negative 200 in less than three seconds? Wow. Lastly let's give Miku in chamber 5 a try. Deploy the Yaoi!"

* * *

Rom and Ram had been exposed to the same stimuli Yoshino had been tested with; a lovely little film called "Ratatoskr presents three minutes of terminally ill puppies being put to sleep". Despite their less-than-extraordinary reactions (Crying, vomiting, the screams of "Why god?! Why?!") both never lost control of their powers. The testing chamber's thermometer didn't even dip!

"Remarkable…. The combat applications alone could…."

"This meeting is dismissed" spoke Woodman suddenly and with authority.

Kotori wasn't even sure if the members present willingly logged off or if Woodman simply hit the power switch on their monitors but within seconds all were gone, their screens empty and unpowered.

"Now then, commander?"

"Yes sir?"

"I will be very blunt and open with you here. I know Hermit, Yoshino, is a very dear friend to you" spoke Woodman with genuine sympathy

"Y-Yes sir…."

"I loath to give you such as task after already asking so much of you-"

"I-I'm always ready! No matter how hard it is!"

"I know. This time however may be ever harder. We -cannot- allow Wescott to get his hands on these two. The study of whatever spirit mutation has affected them could easily allow him to advance his goals in any number of ways"

"As I am aware sir"

"With that said, we must consider how to handle this situation"

"H-How so…?"

"I am not a monster. You will be given as much time as safely can be allowed and every resource we have in order to find some way to reverse what has happened to your friend Yoshino. However, if nothing can be found and their presence becomes a danger having your brother seal them may be required"

"That would…!"

"Yes, possibly terminate the original personality if what the Berserk sisters said is true."

"Brother will never do it. He won't kill Yoshino by sealing those two"

"I know, we may have to… deceive him on the matter. Possibly by telling him that sealing them might restore her"

"Y-You mean L-L-L…"

"Lie? Yes"

"I see…"

"I don't want this to happen as much as you do commander. I hope and pray you are successful in finding some way to avoid this outcome at all costs. If we casually throw away the lives of those girls we will be no better than Wescott but we cannot be careless here. You will have all my support no matter what happens but…, do you understand?"

This wasn't a matter of a some cold and calculating overseer handing down absolute orders without care. Of all the higher ups Kotori felt that Woodman actually cared about the spirits, he didn't want this either, fate and their enemies left them no choice. God only knew what Wescott could achieve by studying this mutated spirit power.

It was almost a shame. If Kotori was subject to a cruel dictator's whims she might at least have someone to blame. As it stood if they were forced to trick Shido into erasing Yoshino all the guilt would fall on her head.

"Yes sir…." replied Kotori with her head held low

"Good. Now go, do your best for Yoshino"

Steeling herself Kotori gave a salute "I will sir! I swear it!" she promised.

Kotori now had the unenviable task of trying to find some way to fix Yoshino or risk having to do something even worse than putting down her brother if his powers ever became unhinged.

If only she was just a normal girl...

* * *

"Um...Ram?" asked Rom as they watched Kotori leave the meeting all mopey.

"Yes?" replied her sister.

"Do you know what any of that means?"

"Not a clue!" sang Ram with zero care.

"Oh…."

"But whatever it was really upset Noire: Red Version!"

"Yeah…" agreed Rom who could see how worried she looked despite trying to act brave.

After watching their friend Uni try and hide her worries under a confident grin so many times it was easy to see through the charade.

"At least we know these guys are basically your standard mysterious organization with unknown, yet probably evil in the end, goals. We're working with the Patriots basically." announced Ram.

Rom tilted her head to the side in thought "I get more Seele vibe from them…"

"Speaking of Seale, I wonder what the heck they were talking about with this sealing thing?"

"They said they wanted to seal us" spoke Rom.

"I don't want to be sealed!" Ram yelled before being hit by a realization " Rom… do you have any idea what being sealed means?"

"No, maybe it's like a skill seal?" her sister in blue suggested.

"Why would they purposely give us a status proc?! What they heck does it do?!"

Looking for answers and knowing they had access to more of Rataoskr's files Rom went to the terminal and began to search "Well lets see here. TypeyTypeyTypey... Sealing… Sealing… Ceiling... Oh! Here we go! _Through the process of having Subject Shido kiss a spirit and sealing their powers that spirit becomes stable and open to peaceful co-ex...exsis….co-existance! The spirit is left with 1% of their powers but it rendered safe and manageable to our methods…_ "

"One percent power!? Oh my goddess Rom, do you know what this means?!" yelled Ram in terror.

"Um…"

"They're going to nerf us!" Ram screamed.

"They're going to make us wear orange foam suits...?"

"No! Balance nerf, the only not-fun kind of nerf! They going to take away our awesomeness and make us soft and not dangerous! This is what they must have done to the rest of our party! That's why these files say they used to be more powerful! They took those other spirits, had that boy kiss them, and nerfed their powers! Now they want to do it to us!"

"Oh…."

"What kind of sick dummy would do something like this?! It's almost as bad as that video of those dead puppies they made us watch!" cried Ram.

" _*Sniffle*_ I keep telling myself they were just napping… _*Sniffle*_ " moaned Rom with her hands to her face.

"We have to stop them!" Ram declared with all the gusto of an idealistic revolutionary.

"But um, Ram? According to this unsealed spirits are kinda dangerous. Maybe they have a good reason to do this?"

"No nerf this bad is justified!" dismissed Ram.

"Well… Not always…. Sometimes things need a balance pass. Maybe they're a bit too strong and…."

"A 99% power reduction Rom! That's Blizzard level nerfing!" argued Ram who looked on the verge of hysterics.

"Perhaps they were too strong early game or in PVP, or mayb-"

Rom's counter-argument was cut off by her sister grabbing her by the collar.

"BLIZZARD. LEVEL. NERFING. ROM" Ram screamed in her face "Do you want to end up like my Heartstone deck?!"

"We did… kinda… one shot a boss…" the timid twin argued while wishing Ram would let go. Her collar was going to get a stretched at this rate and big sister wouldn't like that…

"Irrelevant! Oh I can see the patch notes already!"

"Patch notes?"

"Yeah: _Hello everyone, today the following balance changes have been made to the CPU candidates Rom and Ram: HP Reduced 99%, SP Reduced 99%, STR Reduced 99%, VIT Reduced 99%, INT Reduced 99%, MEN Reduced 99%, AGI Reduced 99%, TEC Increased 3%._ Ugh! They always do that! They give you some crappy throwaway stat in return and act like it's even better!"

"TEC is kinda useful…"

"No one builds for TEC! NOONE!"

"True…" conceded Rom.

Ram finally released her sister and began to pound on the computer terminal "Q! QQ! Why isn't this working?!" she shouted while smashing the Q button over and over again.

"Are you making an angry forum post?" asked Rom as she saw Ram QQing.

Never letting up on her Q barrage Ram replied "I played that over-hyped game about Dogs with Watches, this is how you make everything explode on a computer right!?"

This worried her sister "Making things explode? Oh dear! That seems too harsh. We just need to keep from being sealed right? We don't need to hurt anyone..." suggested Rom.

Giving up on making the base explode Ram put on her most serious of serious thinking pose!

"So this dummy with the blue hair needs to kiss us in order to seal us right? Hmmmmmm…. I got it! We just don't have to let him kiss us!"

"They might be hard Ram. Look" offered her sister as she pointed to files under "Dates".

"Ugh! These guys seem to specialize in making girls fall in love with this dummy!" shouted Ram who dropped her fist on the keyboard in anger "We need a foolproof way to keep that from happening!

"But how Ram?"

With a devious grin Ram came up with the **perfect** plan!

"I know! Everytime we feel something towards this boy we need to think about the absolute, utter, worst person we know!"

"Who?" asked Rom.

"Mister big robot perv!" replied Ram while holding out her tongue in a crude imitation.

"Whhhaaaaa! I hate him…." cried Rom who still shuddered at the thought of what the felon "CFW Trick" had done to them.

The perverted robot had brainwashed her, made her attack her friends, destroy parts of Lowee, and even did all sorts of disgusting things to them! Hate and rage wasn't one of Rom's strongest points (That was more of their big sister's forte') but Trick was the one person in the world Rom could say she hated.

Ram also relived everything about the, thankfully dead, felon.

"Just imagine that big pervert coming for a smooch if this _Shido_ boy starts making any moves on you Rom!"

Inside her head the terrible mental image of CFW Trick dressed in Shido's clothes and wearing his blue hair tormented an imaginary Rom.

" _HeHeHe! Give your big brother some sugar baby!"_ he screeched.

"Eh! GrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGrossGross! They even sound alike in some way!" cried a queasy Rom.

"Yeah it's weird. I noticed that too" agreed Ram who had also observed the rather uncanny link between the voice of this Shido boy and their most hated tormenter.

"Eck! I don't think I can even like boys after dealing with him!" muttered Rom.

"Me either! Boys suck! Lets only like girls from now on!" chirped Ram.

* * *

 _ ***BANG***_

"WHO SAID THAT?!"

"Alarm. Comrade Miku?!"

"Whoa! What warrior-like strength!"

As both Kaguya and Yuzuru were searching the hallways of the underground base they had been confronted by a crazed looking Miku kicking down a solid steel door with naught but her high heels.

The idol's eyes fell onto the twin sisters with an almost manic intensity "~Twins~!"

"Um? Miku? Are you unwell of the head? " asked Kaguya as both she and her sister tried to push the other in front of themselves for protection.

"Madness. Miku appears… _excited_ by something"

"Excited?! Yes! I just felt something really, **really** good!"spoke Miku who appeared to be drooling...

"Ok then…?" muttered Kaguya as Miku began to frantically shift her gaze up and down the hallway as if she was looking for something "The sisters of the hurricane will be scrying elsewhere if she doesn't mind…"

"Did you two just say something now?!" demanded the crazed idol before the two could disengage.

"Clarify. Did we make statements in your presence or-" "No! Before I got here!"

The way Miku was storming upon them made Kaguya and Yuzuru really uncomfortable...

"We were in quite running mode to prevent detection by our targets" explained Kaguya.

"So it wasn't you then…" replied Miku.

"Unease. Is Miku ok?"

The Diva spirit looked at the twins like a madwoman and explained "Every fiber of my body says I need to go find those new girls RIGHT. NOW."

"Um...Good fortune?" offered Kaguya hesitantly.

"Rom! Ram! Your big sister is coming!"

As Miku ran screaming down the hallway both Kaguya and Yuzuru were left wondering just what the HELL happened to set her off like this!?

"Worry. Sister, we need to locate subject's Rom and Ram before pursuer Miku can"

"Agreed my sister. Their lives may depend upon it…"

That was going to be easier said than done. The entire base was in lockdown and every spirit plus Shido was looking for them.

Thankfully Yuzuru had an idea "Plan. This is just like when all of us were looking for Natsumi after she escaped her holding cell here, looking for them is pointless, we need to lure the targets to us!"

"I assume by brilliant sister has something in mind?" questioned Kaguya with a scheming smirk.

"Yes. We need to reach the Public Address system…"

* * *

"Um Ram? Do you feel that? I'm getting the same feeling we got that time Miss Vert wanted to throw a themed sleepover with us, Miss Uni, and Miss Nepgear" asked Rom who shivered slightly despite her heavy coat

The theme Vert suggested had been wedding dresses.

"That perverted feeling of doom? Eh, I'm sure it's nothing. Vert is all the way in another dimension! What could be wrong here?"

"I'm still worried…" cooed Rom.

"Nevermind that! These guys are trying to play us like a fiddle!" refocused Ram.

"They just want to help…"

"I don't care!" huffed Ram bitterly "They acted all nice to us but just want to nerf us instead! They shall pay for trying to trick us! We will have our revenge!" she delaced as Rom cowered with worry.

"Revenge…?"

"We will have our vengeance!"

"V-Vengeance…?!"

"We will have our... _**Revengeance**_!"

"In the end, it has to be this way..." sighed Rom who knew her sister wouldn't be swayed at this point.

"I'll start with this!" announced Ram as she returned to the computer console and began to work, a mad smile upon her lips.

"Ram what are doing to their computers?"

Even if she had given up on making the base explode Ram was determined to use the base's computers to gain an edge on these Rotor-something guys!

"Annnnnnd done! HaHa! They'll **never** see this coming! I've come up with the perfect insurance in case these guys try to get in our way!"

"What did you do?"

Ram turned to her sister with a most evil grin "The same thing big sister did to Vert's computer in order to make sure she never tries to get us to read her "Special" books ever again"

"Oh… Oh! That's bad!"

"Don't care!" sang Ram.

"We shouldn't make trouble Ram! Even if you don't agree with what they're doing to the spirits those other really, REALLY bad guys are still out there!" Rom argued.

Even if she didn't want to admit it Ram knew her sister was right. These dummies were only half the issue since the main bad guys were still a problem. Right now all she was doing was working on a side quest that would maybe lead to the true ending when the main questline hadn't even been started yet!

Ram returned to her thinking pose "Hmmmmmmm…. We need to blow up those people and this Wescott bully while finding some way to protect these spirits in our party-"

"I don't think we need to protect them. They seem happy being sealed"

"-I got it!-"

"Sigh, you aren't listening to me at all are you…?"

Ram was beginning to act more and more like Neptune, was this a main character thing she didn't know about Rom wondered?

"-The best way to deal with a nerf is just to go and start using the 2nd strongest thing! We just need to change these spirits from their class to our class!"

"You mean make them CPU's? Ummmmm, how?" asked Rom.

"I have no idea at all!" shouted Ram happily "But it's fine! In most games if you wait around long enough the story will just drop the answer right in your lap! We just have to wait for all the answers to come to us! Waiting for all the solutions to your problems to come to you is the best way to handle most things!"

"This is why Mina says you need to study more Ram…."

This was the same logic Ram had been using on their magic tests for a while now.

Before they could speak further a soft beep sounded above them over the base's intercom system.

" _Renie: This is small announcement to everyone on base."_

" _Kaguya: Freshbaked cookies are now being served in the dining hall!"_

" _Yuzuru: Classification. Chocolate Chip!"_

 _ ***Bang!Bang!Bang!Bang!***_

" _Renine: It appears someone is breaching through blast doors 3,5,8,12,18…"_

" _Kaguya: Well that was achieved far more rapidly than even I thought!"_

" _Yuzuru: Identity. It's not our main objective. Scans indicate it is...Spirit Princess…"_

" _Reine: We should've expected this reaction. *Sigh* I'll open the rest of the doors in her way"_

" _Kaguya: I'd recommend making great haste! Those who are not fleet of foot will not get any cookies before my kinsman devours them like a ravenous dragon!"_

" _Beep!"_

"Cookies Rom! Cookies!" squealed Ram as she closed out the computer and unplugged her handheld.

"What about Reve-Raven-Ravo...?" asked her sister.

" _ **Revengeance!**_...can wait. Cookies now! Let's go before that blowhard eats all of them and we get stuck with raisin! Ugh! I hate raisin!" ordered Ram.

"Ok…." Rom gave her sister a little nod and followed behind her with a steady skip, leaving behind only Ram's deadly trap in the computer system.

* * *

DEM Medical Center A-14

"I am going to kill those little bitches!"

"Miss! Please calm down! Your wounds-"

"I will cut off every. single. limb they have! They will die screaming my name!"

"Miss Mathers! Mr. Wescott is on the phone for you!"

"What?! Give it here you dolt!" screamed the wizard Mathers as she ripped the phone out of the poor nurse she had been tormenting hands.

She reluctantly sat back down in her hospital bed and tried to make herself presentable, forcing a few strands of hair back into place, before answering the call on the video phone.

"So how goes the recovery my finest weapon? I trust you aren't causing problems for the staff at our facility?" joked the leader of D.E.M. as he sat at a desk in his office with his eyes glued to a nearby terminal instead of the screen he was talking into.

Even though he sounded peaceful Mathers gritted her teeth at the "finest weapon" comment. She had just failed and her gut told her that was just to rub salt into the wounds. To Wescott there was no such thing as unpunished failure, this was something only the dead could attest to.

' _Don't believe his tone. I know he's upset'_ worried the wizard with a scowl

"That was quite the encounter you had with this new set of spirits! How _unlucky_ they overpowered you and blasted you right into display of cacti! HeHe! Sounds almost like something out of a cartoon, did you make any _bonk_ or _bang_ noises as you hit?" he asked with faux playfulness.

Oh all the things she could have been thrown against with her realizer field down those two little demons sent her into a danm collection of potted Cacti! She had needles still stuck in her ass from that!

"I am sorry for my failure…" was all Ellen could muster in the face of such an embarrassment.

"Oh? Don't be!" said Wescott with a smile as he touched his terminal to bring up a video of what appeared to be DEM scientists with bags over their heads kneeling on the ground "I'm more angry at our brains in R&D here. I **told** them I wanted a weapon to  kill spirits so we could extract their crystals" Ellen watched as the video began to play "I **didn't** tell them to make a weapon that would change spirits" without warning an outbreak of muzzle flashes filled the screen and within seconds every scientist was dead with a hole in their heads, executed…

"I see…" muttered Ellen who could already see herself in the same situation if she failed again

"I need those crystals in order for my plan to work. In order to acquire them I need to use the method we have developed after studying Material A. If these crystals are changed we will need to develop new methods to acquire them for me. This will slow my plan down"

Oh god, he was over enunciating, he was THAT mad!

"The spirits were changed that much?" asked Mathers in surprise.

"Based on intercepted transmissions we aren't even sure if they have my crystals anymore. Whatever occurred to them has changed them to the degree that they barely register as spirits. Although studying this new power of theirs is tempting, all our research for the past 30 years has been focused on harnessing the power of the spirits, not these "others". To restart now cannot be allowed to stand"

That made sense, unless the rest of the spirits were altered in a similar way there was nothing to gain here but everything to lose. A dead spirit was useful to them, a sealed spirit was useful to them, a captured spirit was useful to them, a inverted spirit was useful to them. These girls presented a roadblock to all of Wesott's plans just by existing.

No wonder he was secretly furious, he had almost just completely de-railed his own plan by accident when ordering the testing of that weapon.

"What is your plan Issac?"

Finally breaking with his fake cheerfulness Wescott fell back into his chair with a sigh "As much as I hate to admit it we need the Hermit restored to her full condition. Once she is restored we can either proceed with method A or method B to deal with her but until that happens we need these two "mutations" alive" he explained with a childish annoyance.

' _Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!Dammit!'_

"Is that ok Adeptus one?"

"It's (Grrrrrrrr…..) fine!"

Returning to his creepy smile Wescott finally looked at the screen "Good! That's good! For now your mission is to acquire these new spirits "Rom" and "Ram" as soon as you are healed enough. Once in our loving care we will work on ways to revert the changes that have affected them"

"It will be done!" swore Mathers

"It better. Regardless I'm sending you something new we're working on. More specifically the Basalt"

"The Basalt? It's complete?" asked Mathers who believed that particular project was shelved months ago.

"It's close range systems are still suboptimal but it should be a useful way to "force" the issue with Woodman's group. They may have no choice but to hand them over if it is deployed" explained her boss.

"Are you...certain of this action? A significant portion of our net worth is tied up in that project and it's still experimental. Even if the board if neutered and cannot object to the cost-"

"You worry too much my dear" spoke Wescott with a grin "Nothing in this world can match its power. Our victory is assured"

* * *

Lastation Heavy Salvage Yard

"Geeze Gear, as happy as I am you and your sister came over to see us (Even if your big sister did charge into the basilicom just to bug mine) do we really have to hang out someplace like here?" asked the CPU candidate of Lastation Uni as both she and gear trudged through piles of broken mechs and spaceships in Lastation's main salvage yard.

Being as industrious as it was Lastation was always hungry for large quantities of metals so naturally salvage was a big ticket item for them economically.

Nepgear paid her little attention as she gawked at all the broken hulls and crushed circuits around her. To a technophile this was borderline heaven!

"Oh! Oh goodness! It's a scouting lance of Lyran Atlas mechs! Over here is a old Gallente Dominix! I wonder if it's advanced drone control protocols are still intact!? In the distance...are those GDI Mk 3 Mammoth tanks with the railgun upgrade?! Oh my-! A Minotaur Class Terran Battlecruiser! So much neosteel! Eeeeh! A UEF ACU! I thought all those were destroyed! A stack of Medium Anti-Vehicle / Assault Weapon, Bore 102mm, M41 Surface-to-Surface Rocket Launchers!? Who threw these out?! Even a TEC Javelin missile frigate?!" gushed Gear with starry eyes as they danced from one glorious visage from another

Uni was less impressed by the display "Um Gear? These things may have been impressive at one point but now they're all junk"

"It's only junk to those who aren't willing to fix them! Oh, such potential!"

Seeing that Gear had her heart set on this Uni returned to her original question.

"Why are we out here anyway?" asked the mini Tsun

"Oh goodness! Didn't I ever explain?" asked Nepgear, feeling red with embarrassment "I had a great idea after listening to some of the stories Yoshino told us about their word! I just need some parts!"

"Wait…? You're working on something new? What about fixing the Plot Device so we can get Ram and Rom back?" replied Uni who thought Nepgear was all tied up with returning those two.

"This ties into that! Trust me! It'll be great!" assured Nepgear as she took out her handheld and began to scan the hulls around her for measurements

"-What- are you building anyway?" asked Uni again

Nepgear could only smile, her head awash with beautiful schematics and visions of technological domination.

"A weapon to surpass Alloy Gear!"

"Oh? Those things? Pretty sure we have two under a tarp near the back. Someone brought them here a couple months ago after finding them abandoned. I'm pretty sure they didn't even put up a fence around that island. They just kinda….left them there" explained Uni

Instantly Nepgear's face was right next to Uni's, the Lastation candidate turning beet red because of it "SHOW ME! SHOW ME NOW!" she demanded

"Ok! Ok! Follow me. Not sure if they're even important models or anything" replied the flustered Uni as she grabbed Gear by the hand and lead her away

In her mind all she could think was of how perfect this place would be as a dating spot for Nepgear and...whoever would take her out to someplace like this.

This wasn't a date of course...right?

* * *

Author Note: Guess what gaming franchise I've really been getting into lately? LOL! Here's the next chapter with every side in this war of madness drawing up their battle plans. Please leave a review if you like. Also I'm looking for someone to do a piece of art for the story to use as it's icon. If anyone has any talent for that stuff please PM me. I can't offer anything but it would be nice to have something to put up.


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